A prominent member of the Oath Keepers who was one of the "primary orchestrators" of the first breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has never been arrested for his role in the breach and is being protected by the FBI, a report said.
Who exactly is Ray Epps?
Epps was prominent in a video which Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie showed during the testimony of Attorney General Merrick Garland last week. Massie's line of questioning left Garland stammering. Ultimately, the attorney general refused to comment on the video.
Massie: "As far as we can determine, the individual who was saying he’ll probably go to jail, he’ll probably be arrested, but they need to go into the Capitol the next day, is then directing people into the Capitol the next day, is then the next day directing people to the Capitol. And as far as we can find. You said this is one of the most sweeping in history. Have you seen that video, or those frames from that video?"
Garland: "So as I said at the outset, one of the norms of the Justice Department is to not comment on pending investigations, and particularly not to comment on particular scenes or particular individuals."
Massie: "I was hoping today to give you an opportunity to put to rest the concerns that people have that there were federal agents or assets of the federal government present on January 5 and January 6. Can you tell us, without talking about particular incidents or particular videos, how many agents or assets of the federal government were present on January 6, whether they agitated to go into the Capitol, and if any of them did?"
Garland: "So I’m not going to violate this norm of, uh, of, of, of, the rule of law. [Looks down and away] I’m not going to comment on an investigation that’s ongoing."
Witnesses noted and video showed that, as protesters first reached the Capitol on Jan. 6, where Epps had been encouraging them to go for two days, they began to confront the police officers standing near low-security barriers. A young man wearing a black t-shirt and red MAGA cap can be seen engaging with police officers at the barriers. Epps then shows up and whispers in the ear of the young man, Ryan Samsel, a Pennsylvania resident who reportedly has an extensive violent criminal background. Epps seems to know to target Samsel, as he whispers in his ear. Almost immediately afterward, Samsel begins to push down the barriers, allowing protesters to run through the barriers and onto the Capitol grounds. Epps then disappears.
Did #RayEpps Set up Ryan Samsel, who had an extensive criminal record? Watch, as he whispers in his ear snd then disappears as Samsel breaks through the Capitol Police barrier, allowing protesters to enter Capitol grounds. pic.twitter.com/4xDWm6t2zh
— @SassyConservativeGirl45 (@SassyConservat1) October 25, 2021
The investigative reporting team at Revolver did a deep dive into Epps and revealed in an Oct. 25 report that Epps appears to have "led the 'breach team' that committed the very first illegal acts on that fateful day. What’s more, Epps and his 'breach team' did all their dirty work with 10 minutes still remaining in President Trump’s National Mall speech, and with the vast majority of Trump supporters still 30 minutes away from the Capitol."
Revolver also discovered that the FBI had "stealthily removed Ray Epps from its Capitol Violence Most Wanted List on July 1, just one day after Revolver exposed the inexplicable and puzzlesome FBI protection of known Epps associate and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. July 1 was also just one day after a separate New York Times report amplified a glaring, falsifiable lie about Epps’s role in the events of January 6."
The report noted how Epps appeared to have "worked alongside several individuals — many of them suspiciously unindicted — to carry out a breach of the police barricades that induced a subsequent flood of unsuspecting MAGA protesters to unwittingly trespass on Capitol restricted grounds and place themselves in legal jeopardy."
Revolver noted that Epps had been prominent in virtually every encounter on Jan. 6, playing two separate roles.
"First, Epps instructed his commandos and the crowds at his attention to rush into the Capitol and let nothing stop them. Second, Epps assiduously protected cops and law enforcement so no local or federal officers would be harmed during the precision breaches."
On Jan. 8, the FBI posted a photo of Epps on its alert seeking information on "violence at the United States Capitol." The bureau even offered a cash reward.
In less than three days, Epps was identified as Suspect 16 on the alert. "Researchers corroborated his identity with troves of unassailable direct evidence, including an effective confession from Epps himself to his own local newspaper," the Revolver report noted.
As Joe Biden, Democrat members of Congress, and their Big Media allies contended that Jan. 6 was the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War, the FBI did nothing with the information provided on Epps by the public. Meanwhile, agents were dispatched around the country to investigate and arrest hundreds of Americans mostly for minor misdemeanor trespassing charges.
On July 1, between the hours of 3:37 a.m. and 5:55 p.m., the FBI "finally took action on Ray Epps," Revolver noted. "But not to prosecute him, or to announce a sweeping investigation or FBI SWAT raid on Epps’s house for all of his phones and electronics. Instead, someone at the FBI quietly and stealthily purged every trace of Ray Epps from the Capitol Riots Most Wanted database."
The searchable Justice.gov Capitol Breach Cases database confirms there are no case dockets or filings for anyone named “Epps”.
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