During a Congressional hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday, Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie asked the nation’s top lawman about the curious case of “Ray Epps.”
Who is Ray Epps? Well, wouldn’t we all love to know for sure? He appears, however, to be the same man who helped initiate the breach of the Capitol barricades and encouraged others to join him in the protest/riot. Indeed, he worked overtime to seed his message the day of the protest and the day before.
Revolver News thinks he might be a “Fed! Fed! Fed!” as one pro-Trump protester called him when he saw Epps urge the mob to attack in advance of the Jan. 6 riot.
The protester/social media maven that you may know as “Baked Alaska,” who is a former Buzzfeed reporter, smelled a rat. He called out Epps as a “Fed! Fed! Fed! Fed! Fed!”
https://t.co/kluTKnXFzY
New Video
1/6 Fed op, former oathekeepers Arizona chapter president plays role of agitator as federal informant, also claims of #rayepps being USMC seem to be stolen valor but more investigation needed @DarrenJBeattie @julie_kelly2— Davey Crocker (@davey_crocker) October 24, 2021
Indeed, Epps could be a federal agent or instigator of some sort, though we at PJ Media stipulate that there is no independent verification of his identity or purpose, whether it be personal or on behalf of law enforcement. On the other hand, investigations into the Jan. 6 protest-turned-riot and the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer have turned up odd coincidences and curiosities about instigators and “protesters” who appear to have connections with law enforcement. The person running both operations is the same FBI agent.
Congressman Massie thought the similarities were a little odd and questioned Garland about them.
Revolver News provided a transcript of the testimony:
Rep. 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?
AG 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.
Rep. 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?
AG Garland: So I’m not going to violate this norm of, uh, of, of, of, the rule of law.
[Looks down and away]
I just played this video for AG Merrick Garland. He refused to comment on how many agents or assets of the federal government were present in the crowd on Jan 5th and 6th and how many entered the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/lvd9n4mMHK
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 21, 2021
It should be noted that the man known as Epps told anyone who would listen to his many messages that he probably “would go to jail for” encouraging the protesters and unlawful behavior.
Epps (E): In fact tomorrow? I don’t like to say it because I could be arrested.
Baked Alaska (BA): Well, let’s not say it.
E: We need to go — I’ll say it — we need to go in to the Capitol.
BA: Let’s go!
Epps talked about getting arrested but urged the people to “into the Capitol!” on Jan. 6 several times.
They did it in the Whitmer case, and this Epps guy surely seems to be doing it in this case.
Revolver reports they’ve got this guy dead-to-rights:
After months of research, Revolver’s investigative reporting team can now reveal that Ray Epps appears to be among the primary orchestrators of the very first breach of the Capitol’s police barricades at 12:50pm on January 6. 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.
Secondly, Revolver also determined, and will prove below, that the the FBI 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 separate New York Times report amplified a glaring, falsifiable lie about Epps’s role in the events of January 6.
Lastly, Ray Epps appears 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.
His photo was initially on the “FBI’s Capitol Violence Most Wanted” list. He was “Suspect 16.” Internet sleuths found, identified, and reported him, and then six months later on July 1 – poof! – he suddenly vanished from the FBI list.
Sounds like somebody made a deal. Or somebody was a cop.
Comedian Chris Rock has a funny line in one of his famous bits about crooks pretending not to know anything about a theft that they themselves committed. “You ain’t hearing sh*t cuz you was doing sh*t.”
It seems Epps was very busy “doing sh*t.” And doing it on behalf of his two masters — the mob he riled up and — law enforcement…?
From Revolver:
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.
The video showing him walking this line is a clinic in gaslighting.
Revolver reports that the agent provocateur didn’t deny he was there on Jan. 6 but admitted no wrongdoing.
This caused a problem. Revolver News reports in June seem to have hastened the “disappearance” of Epps from the list in July. Then, The New York Times assisted the FBI with a cover piece about Epps “acting on his own.” The NYT, ostensibly looking for a widespread insurrection conspiracy among crazy, Trump-supporting, white supremacists, was ready with a sure-fire answer: Yeah, sure, but not that guy.
Furthermore, Epps was the head of the Arizona chapter of the Oathkeepers and was a personal friend of another apparent federal asset, Stewart Rhodes, the head of the group.
You should know that when FBI agents infiltrate a group — for example, the Gretchen Whitmer caper — that they must somehow convey to the hapless followers that doing what the instigators, the feds in this case, suggest is illegal. This is so the federal government can prove that wrongdoers knew that what they were doing was against the law. There’s simply not much more to prove after that.
Slam, meet dunk.
As Revolver notes:
January 6, after all, was scheduled as a Trump rally. In the 323 rallies before Trump took office, and the 168 rallies thereafter, there had never been a single instance of rioting or pre-planned illegal activity.
Lawbreaking was 0 for 491 at Trump rallies before January 6.
Perhaps this extraordinarily track record of physical restraint explains why Epps’s arrest-bait proposal stood out like a sore thumb, and why he was quickly shouted down.
But that above encounter was not the first time on January 5 that Epps held court in a crowded gathering, demanding everyone in earshot rush the Capitol the next day. In the following clip, from slightly earlier in the evening, Epps gives the same exact spiel, almost as if his lines were practiced and rehearsed. Note how Epps deploys the same preface of “I probably shouldn’t say this because I’ll probably get arrested” before making his same Capitol-invasion pitch, and delivers the same theatrical pause after “in” when he tells them: “We need to go in to the Capitol.”
The Revolver report adds multiple examples of him barging into bullhorn messages by activists, hijacking the message and suggesting people “storm the Capitol.”
Another activist, John Sullivan, thought to be affiliated with Antifa and BLM, is now being seen in a new light. In addition to being near Ashli Babbitt, he encouraged her to break into the Capitol, and live-streamed her shooting and death, after encouraging the Air Force veteran to storm the Capitol.
Revolver suggests that he, too, is a federal informant of sorts.
🚨#SeattleProtests Community Alert:
We have reason to believe that a likely infiltrator/agent provocateur by the name of John Sullivan, or “Activist John,” is attempting to insert himself in the Seattle protest community.
(sorry babe, long thread)
(1/23) #seattleprotestcomms pic.twitter.com/MuxQ74XCJo
— Rebellion Baby (@RebellionBaby) November 26, 2020
It’s likely that the very first video you saw of Ashli Babbitt’s killing at the hands of Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd was taken by Sullivan. CNN paid him handsomely for it.
He may have been working for the feds, according to Revolver News.
We already know that the federal government had a role in Gretchen Whitmer’s kidnapping plot and the Jan. 6 plot.
The question Congressman Thomas Massie wanted to know: Were Ray Epps, John Sullivan, and others the on-the-ground instigators for the Capitol riot? The same riot — “insurrection” — used to impeach Donald Trump?
Story cited here.
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