Capitol rioter’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News dismissed

A Delaware court judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News on Jan. 6 by a rebel who said the network misidentified him as an FBI informant.

U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Hall granted Fox News’ request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Ray Epps last year.

Epps, now based in Utah, claimed his life was turned upside down after former Fox host Tucker Carlson repeatedly identified him as a federal agent who helped incite the attack on the Capitol, an attempt to stop the certification of President Biden’s election.

Carlson identified Epps as the director of the false flag operation in which the government incited the Jan. 6 riot, a baseless conspiracy theory. He made false comments about Epps in his program, which lasted about two years, and in the series “Patriot Purge”, which aired on Fox Nation in 2022.

In his speech from the podium, Hall said that Carlson did not act with malicious intent.

Fox News welcomed the judge’s ruling, the third consecutive defamation case decided in the network’s favor following a record $787 million settlement. Payment was made to Dominion Voting Systems in April 2024.

Dominion said its business was harmed by false claims Fox News presented about voting fraud in the 2020 election. Fox News opted to settle the case rather than have its executives and on-air talent take the witness stand at a hearing.

A separate defamation lawsuit filed by Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the Federal Disinformation Governance Board, was dismissed in July. Another lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski was dismissed on Tuesday.

“Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions by federal courts protecting First Amendment press freedoms,” the network said in a statement.

Epps was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for his role in the riot in January.

Former prime time host Tucker Carlson is seen in the studio on the set of his show on Fox News in New York in 2018.

(Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times)

However, Epps testified under oath to the House committee investigating the attack that he had no affiliation with the FBI, and the FBI publicly stated that it had no affiliation with the FBI.

The lawsuit alleged that Epps and his wife received threatening voicemails, emails and text messages because of Carlson’s comments. Epps told the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” that the lies destroyed his Arizona-based business and led to death threats.

Carlson’s prime-time schedule was pulled from the Fox News schedule on April 24, 2023, the day after Epps appeared on “60 Minutes.”