Owner Murdoch himself admitted that Fox News repeatedly reported untruths in connection with Trump’s election defeat. Now the right-wing US broadcaster has been sued again.
Who is Ray Epps? Before the storming of the Capitol in January 2021, hardly anyone in the United States could answer that question. After that, however, viewers of Fox News – and particularly of star host Tucker Carlson’s show – quickly became familiar with the name.
Epps can be seen on video footage of the Capitol storm, Carlson said at the time, calling for riots, crime and break-ins into Parliament buildings. So far, so true: Trump supporter Epps actually traveled to Washington from Arizona on January 6th. In the firm conviction that the previous US President Donald Trump’s election had been stolen and now the certification of a falsified election result must be prevented. Epps, a former member of the far-right Oathkeepers militia, was a criminal of conviction.
Right-wing myth disproved long ago
Fox News, however, and Carlson in particular, claimed that he was in fact something else: an undercover agent sent to Washington by the FBI to provoke the riot. The committee of inquiry into the Capitol storm has long since disproved this right-wing myth.
“Are you aware that Ray Epps was a secret government agent?” FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked at a House hearing this week. “No,” said the FBI chief. The idea that the January 6 violence was somehow part of an operation organized by federal police is ridiculous.
Epps had to move
So now the lawsuit before a court in the state of Delaware: Epps’ lawyer Michael Teter describes the US broadcaster CNN what the consequences of the Fox conspiracy theory were for his client: Immediately after Carlson began his defamation, there were death threats against Epps and given to his wife. The couple sold their home in Arizona out of fear and moved to Ohio, to an undisclosed location.
If the lawsuit is allowed, then the lawsuit will probably also deal with what prompted Carlson, who Fox News has since fired, and the station to start the campaign.
Sued for damages
“Carlson is obsessed with me. He tries everything to destroy my life,” says Epps himself in an interview with CBS. “But why? To distract from those who are really responsible,” says Epps. What is meant are Trump and the Republican Party, the majority of which supports the false claim that the election was stolen.
However, the political implications of the possible process will probably remain of secondary importance. Epps has sued the broadcaster for damages and pain and suffering.