Ray Epps Sues Fox News for Defamation, Claims He Was Forced to Sell His Home
12 Jul 2023
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A former Donald Trump supporter who became the center of a conspiracy theory about Jan. 6, 2021, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Wednesday, saying the network made him a scapegoat for the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Raymond Epps, a former Marine who said he was forced from his Arizona home due to threats, is asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial.
He filed his lawsuit in Superior Court in Delaware, the same court where Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for lies broadcast following the 2020 presidential election. Shortly before a trial was to begin this spring, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787 million to settle the charges.
Fox had no immediate comment on Epps’ lawsuit.
Epps, who had traveled to Washington for the Jan. 6 demonstration, was falsely accused by Fox of being a government agent who was whipping up trouble that would be blamed on Trump supporters, the lawsuit claims.
“In the aftermath of the events of January 6th, Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican Party,” the lawsuit said. “Eventually, they turned on one of their own.”
Although the lawsuit mentions Fox’s Laura Ingraham and Will Cain, former Fox host Tucker Carlson was cited as the leader in promoting the theory. Epps was featured in more than two dozen segments on Carlson’s prime-time show, the lawsuit said. Fox News fired Carlson shortly after the Dominion settlement was announced.
The lawsuit said that Carlson “was bluntly telling his viewers that it was a fact that Epps was a government informant. And they believed him.”
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https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2023/07/12/ray-epps-sues-fox-news-for-defamation-claims-he-was-forced-to-sell-his-home/