Ray Epps. The whole truth about January 6 arguably begins and ends with Ray Epps. And if the FBI and the broader Biden Justice Department are interested in sharing this truth with the American people (they aren’t, but let’s pretend they are), they must start by answering these two questions:

1) Who is Ray Epps?

2) What was his role in the events of January 6?

The increasingly likely answer, based upon deeply incriminating video evidence, and upon the mysterious disappearance of Epps from the FBI’s Most Wanted poster, and upon the FBI’s utter unwillingness to answer the questions about Epps from Republican senators during yesterday’s hearing, is that Ray Epps was an agent provocateur planted by the FBI to incite lawless behavior by American citizens. This is the well-founded rumor now widely circulating, and the FBI’s already tarnished reputation is being further damaged by it.

The FBI doesn’t want you to know about Ray Epps. Neither does Joe Biden. Nor does Nancy Pelosi nor any members of her truth-averse J6 Committee, also known as “The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.” In truth, Pelosi’s “select committee” is conducting a selective investigation, a sham inquisition.

This isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned Ray Epps. We smelled a rat back in October, and nothing since then has worked to remove that stench. As the Washington Examiner reports:

With speculation swirling, Republicans have been clamoring for more clarity on Epps, but Justice Department and FBI officials have repeatedly declined to provide answers about the provocateur as well as any FBI informants or agents who may have been embedded within the pro-Trump crowd as people stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification of now-President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election. The Jan. 6 committee made the first move Tuesday, saying House investigators interviewed Epps, but failing to offer any insight into whether he was under oath when he denied being an FBI informant.

Pelosi’s committee, perhaps thinking it had no other choice, has chosen to stake out a rather preposterous series of claims about Epps. According to its statement: “The Select Committee is aware of unsupported claims that Ray Epps was an FBI informant based on the fact that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from that list without being charged. The Select Committee has interviewed Mr. Epps. Mr. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5th or 6th or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

Okay, so why wasn’t he charged? Charged for incitement? “We need to go in to the Capitol!” Epps said. Hundreds of other J6 participants have been charged and held for far less serious offenses than that which Epps is clearly and unequivocally seen doing on video.

Yesterday’s Senate hearing, “The Domestic Terrorism Threat One Year after January 6,” was gratifying in that Republican senators, one after another, exposed the Biden Justice Department and its utter lack of forthcomingness. Here’s Texas Senator Ted Cruz grilling Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen and Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s National Security branch Jill Sanborn:

Cruz redeemed himself from last week’s egregious assessment of the January 6 riot as “a terrorist attack.” It wasn’t, and he rightly got an earful for it. Yesterday, he was tough, focused, and combative. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was equally aggressive:

Perhaps the most telling moment of yesterday’s hearings was this exchange between Cruz and Sanborn: “On January 6, Mr. Epps is seen whispering to a person, and five seconds later … that same person begins to forcibly tear down the barricades. Did Mr. Epps urge them to tear down the barricades?”

“Sir, similar to the other answers, I cannot answer that,” said Sanborn.

Cruz finished his questioning by noting that he’s not the only one who’s troubled by bureau’s evasiveness. “Ms. Sanborn,” he said, “a lot of Americans are concerned that the federal government deliberately encouraged illegal and violent conduct on January 6th. … Did federal agents, or those in service of federal agents, actively encourage violent and criminal conduct on January 6?”

“Not to my knowledge, sir,” she replied.

Not to her knowledge. Color us shocked — S-H-O-C-K-E-D — that the FBI doesn’t want the American people to know the truth about its role in the events of January 6.