Ray Epps, the Arizona man at the center of claims that FBI informants provoked the Capitol riot, is scheduled to sit down for a transcribed interview with the Jan. 6 House select committee Friday.
The select committee disclosed last Tuesday that Epps told them during an interview in November that he had no involvement with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency before, during, or after the Capitol riot. Epps’s lawyer, John Blischak, told Politico that the meeting was merely a precursor for the more formal transcribed interview scheduled to take place Friday.
Epps was filmed in the hours leading up to the riot urging Trump supporters to enter the Capitol to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. He was also captured on video whispering into the ear of a rioter just moments before the first police barricade on Capitol grounds was breached, an event that prosecutors said in a recent court filing “opened up the floodgates to the Capitol.”
“We’re holding ground — we’re not trying to get people hurt,” Epps was later filmed telling another rioter while standing on restricted Capitol grounds.
Epps has not been arrested or charged for his actions. He was one of the first individuals pictured on the FBI’s Capitol Violence most wanted list, but he was removed from the list without explanation July 1, fueling speculation from some Republican members of Congress that he may have been an FBI informant.
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Blischak has said that Epps called the FBI two days after the Capitol riot and “explained his position.” He said Epps was removed from the list because the FBI had positively identified him but added that he did not know why the FBI waited nearly half a year to do so.
Blischak also noted that Epps did not enter the Capitol building, a key factor that the Justice Department has considered when deciding whether or not to charge someone.
But Epps was filmed standing in a “restricted area” on Capitol grounds, which is a crime. Federal authorities charged a woman who was caught on video standing right next to Epps when the first police barricade was breached with violating the restricted area — but did not charge Epps.
The woman, Raechel Genco, is one of the only individuals charged with just being in a restricted area on Capitol grounds. Unlike Epps, Genco was not filmed a day earlier encouraging Trump supporters to enter the Capitol building
Epps isn’t the only Capitol riot participant to have mysteriously disappeared from the FBI’s most wanted list.
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Another man, who was recently identified as Arizona-based far-right activist Luke Philip Robinson, was filmed on Capitol grounds carrying a concealed handgun and wearing an earpiece. He was pictured on the FBI’s most wanted list for over five months until he was removed without explanation Sept. 25, the same day The New York Times reported that an FBI informant was at the Capitol during the riot.
