Ray Epps, pro-Trump rioter smeared by conspiracy theories, gets probation for role in Capitol riot

A Jan. 6 rioter who was falsely accused by Donald Trump of being a government agent was sentenced Tuesday to a year of probation for his actions during the attack on the Capitol.

The sentence of Ray Epps is more lenient than the six months of prison time that prosecutors requested. And it marks the conclusion of one of the strangest Jan. 6 subplots: the saga of Epps, a former Oath Keeper from Arizona who was among the first pro-Trump rioters to breach police barricades and then became the target of far-right conspiracy theories.

Epps received death threats after Republican members of Congress and conservative media spread false claims that he was an undercover agent who helped incite the Capitol riot. Those claims were even echoed by Trump — who on Tuesday sat in the same courthouse listening to arguments in one of his own criminal cases at the same time that Epps was being sentenced.

“This is not an easy sentencing,” said Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. district court in Washington. Boasberg noted that Epps knowingly joined a mob and entered a walled-off area on the day of attack — but then confessed to law enforcement, helped congressional investigators, and saw his life upended by the conspiracy theories.

James “Ray” Epps, a former Marine who ran a wedding venue in Arizona, traveled to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of the Electoral College results. On Jan. 5, he told rowdy Trump supporters that they needed to “go to the Capitol” the next day. An attendee videotaped his comments and captured people in the crowd chanting “Fed! Fed! Fed!” at him.

During the Trump rally that preceded the electoral count, Epps told attendees they should march to the Capitol. And right before another defendant, Ryan Samsel, engaged in one of the day’s first acts of violence, Epps whispered in his ear.

Epps traveled with the mob as it turned violent — sometimes trying to quell violence, sometimes not. Prosecutors did not accuse him of having any physical contact with police officers or of entering the Capitol building itself. But, they wrote in a sentencing memo, “[e]ven if Epps did not physically touch law enforcement officers or go inside of the building, he undoubtedly engaged in collective aggressive conduct.”

Epps’ lawyer, meanwhile, pushed back on any suggestion that Epps was violent that day.

In court papers, Epps described chilling harassment after pro-Trump media commentators suggested he could have been planted in the crowd by FBI agents to incite violence and embarrass the Trump movement: a busload of Trump supporters driving past his wedding venue during nuptial ceremonies and shouting threats, shell casings appearing on his property, and strangers telling him in person to “sleep with one eye open.” Epps said the harassment forced him and his wife to sell their business and move to another state.

Epps and the Justice Department reached a deal where he pled guilty to one misdemeanor count: disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. The charge carried a maximum prison sentence of one year.

Epps argued he should just receive probation. Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that he bore partial responsibility for the day’s violence and thus deserved six months in prison.

But in his first words at the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Mike Gordon conceded that Epps was both a defendant and a victim. Gordon’s first sentence to the judge: “Ray Epps has been unfairly scapegoated.”

“His life has been destroyed by conspiracy theorists eager to blame the government for the violence on January 6,” he added moments later.

Gordon then played video of Epps telling protesters on Jan. 5 that they should go into the Capitol, and video of him moving his hands toward a large, heavy sign that later injured police officers.

Boasberg called Gordon’s evidence about that sign “somewhat equivocal,” and said the intimation that he was a leader on Jan. 6 was a “vast overstatement.” But the judge added that Epps’ decision to trespass on territory he knew was off-limits was “serious,” and may have warranted jail time without mitigating circumstances.

For Epps, though, mitigating circumstances were abundant. Boasberg told Epps he was the only Jan. 6 defendant to suffer “for what you didn’t do” — in other words, the only defendant to face threats and harassment because powerful people lied about his actions that day. Boasberg also noted Epps’ early remorse and longtime community service.