The House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Ray Epps, who some Republicans suggest may have been an FBI informant, denies ever working with the bureau, even as the Justice Department evades questions about any informants or agents present in the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021.
Epps, on video in the hours leading up to the riot encouraging the crowd to enter the Capitol, had been on the FBI’s Capitol Violence most wanted list before he was removed without explanation after nearly six months.
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 did not offer any insight into whether he was under oath when he denied being an FBI informant.
“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 panel said in a statement. “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.”
Video footage shows Epps, a former president of the Arizona Oath Keepers militia group, urging a crowd of Trump supporters on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, to “go into the Capitol” the next day, provoking allegations from the crowd that he was working for the federal authorities, with chants of “Fed!”
As former President Donald Trump spoke to supporters outside the White House on Jan. 6, Epps went to work loudly encouraging people to move toward the Capitol. He was also part of an initial group of rioters who broke through a police barrier on Capitol grounds, and he whispered something unknown into the ear of one rioter a few seconds before that person began trying to rip at a police barrier.
The Department of Justice said at least 725 defendants have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riot and that more than 225 defendants had been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers. However, despite initial hype from a former top DOJ prosecutor, no one has been charged with insurrection or sedition.
Epps has not been arrested or charged for his actions. There is no evidence that Epps entered the Capitol building during the riot nor is there any footage of him personally participating in acts of violence against police officers or anyone else. He, along with thousands of others, did unlawfully enter the Capitol’s larger restricted grounds, but most of those cases have not been charged.
The Arizona Republic identified Epps as the individual pictured in the FBI’s Capitol Violence most wanted list less than a week after the riot. His picture remained on the list for nearly six months until its unexplained removal July 1, 2021.
Epps told the Arizona Republic he did nothing wrong and that rioters who engaged in violence to gain entry into the Capitol building were “totally, totally wrong.”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz raised questions about Epps and about any possible Capitol riot informants during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, who dodged most of the questions.
Cruz asked her who Epps is, and she said, “I’m aware of the individual, sir. I don’t have the specific background to him.” He asked whether Epps was a federal informant or whether he encouraged anyone to tear down barricades. “I cannot answer that,” she replied to both.
Cruz also asked Sanborn how many FBI agents or confidential informants “actively participated” in the events of Jan. 6. She said only, “I can’t go into the specifics of sources and methods.” The senator then asked directly whether any FBI agents or informants participated, whether any committed any acts of violence, or whether any encouraged or incited acts of violence. Sanborn replied, “I can’t answer that.”
“A lot of Americans are concerned that the federal government deliberately encouraged illegal and violent conduct on Jan. 6,” Cruz claimed. “My question to you — and this is not an ordinary law enforcement question, this is a question of public accountability — did federal agents or those in service of federal agents actively encourage violent criminal conduct on Jan. 6?”
Sanborn replied, “Not to my knowledge, sir.”
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Republican Sen. Tom Cotton also grilled Matt Olsen, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s National Security Division, about similar matters Tuesday.
Cotton asked Olsen whether DOJ or the FBI had any “plainclothes officers” about the Capitol riot crowd, and Olsen said he was “not aware of whether or not there were.” When asked if any plainclothes officers entered the Capitol that day, Olsen said, “I don’t know the answer to that.” Cotton criticized his unresponsiveness, and Olsen said, “As a general matter, it’s not appropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.”
When Cotton brought up Epps, Olsen repeatedly said, “I don’t have any information about that individual.” He also claimed, “I’m not familiar with the most wanted page.”
Democratic Chairman Dick Durbin spoke briefly about Epps after Cruz’s and Cotton’s lines of questioning, saying, “I had never heard the name before” as he entered an article from PolitiFact into the record.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky presented video footage of Epps encouraging people to go into the Capitol on Jan. 5 and 6 during a hearing in October with Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland refused an opportunity from Massie to “put to rest” allegations that federal agents or informants agitated people to storm the Capitol, as Garland repeatedly said he would not comment on an ongoing investigation.
“One of the norms of the Justice Department is to not comment on pending investigations and particularly not to comment about particular scenes or particular individuals,” Garland said, adding, “I’m not going to violate this norm of the rule of law.”
The New York Times reported in September that it had obtained records showing an FBI informant affiliated with the Proud Boys had texted his FBI handler as he marched into the Capitol during the riot. The outlet said the records did not disclose the informant’s identity but contended that “the records, and information from two people familiar with the matter, suggest that federal law enforcement had a far greater visibility into the assault on the Capitol, even as it was taking place, than was previously known.”
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The FBI previously declined to answer the Washington Examiner’s questions on why Epps was removed from the bureau’s list. It also declined to answer whether any federal informants or agents were present during the riot or ever acted as agents provocateur there and how many informants or agents may have been present.
“We cannot comment on individuals who have not been charged by the Department of Justice,” Samantha Shero, a public affairs officer for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said in a short statement.
