Without a doubt, on January 6, 2021, a man called on protesters to storm the U.S. Capitol. That same man is not going to spend a day in jail. If federal prosecutors wanted to prove that Ray Epps was a federal agent that day, he could not have done a better job.
Mr. Epps first appeared on the government's most wanted list a few days later on January 6, 2021, but was mysteriously removed immediately. This led to speculation that Epps was a government employee. Epps was implicated in what, according to the Jan. 6 rules, would have resulted in a pre-dawn armed attack, pretrial detention, multiple felonies, and ultimately several years in federal prison. Dozens of videos showing this have been released over the past three years.
If Ray Epps wasn't working for the government that day, why is he the “rebel” the government is so eager to protect?
But strangely, Epps was not arrested. On September 5, nearly three years after the events of January 6, the Department of Justice sent a letter to Epps' lawyers proposing a plea deal on a single misdemeanor charge.
Apparently, in conversations with the government that are not included in public records, Epps accepted the deal and the case began without any fuss on September 18, 2023, and four days later Epps took a plea deal. I accepted. The incident has been resolved.
Epps was scheduled to be sentenced in person on Tuesday. But the previous day, the court announced that the hearing would be held by teleconference, with no means for public participation.
The fact that the court allowed Epps to be sentenced by telephone indicated that the Justice Department and the judge were somehow on the same page and that Epps was exempt from prison time. Otherwise they would have wanted him to attend the hearing. The government has always argued, and judges often agree, that the Jan. 6 defendants should be taken into federal marshal custody immediately after their sentencing.
Instead, Epps received a one-year suspended sentence on misdemeanor charges, a puzzling sentence given that he was the only man caught on video the day before the riot. The day before the riot, he called on protesters to storm the Capitol because no one could have imagined what would happen. Epps never had a pretrial, and the minor charges he faced were not charged for several years. Meanwhile, hundreds of nonviolent defendants with no criminal history spent months in solitary confinement and were ultimately sentenced to years in prison.
Display of double standards
of Department of Justice Judgment Memo Because Epps gave away the game. This was not just an act of grace and clemency by a federal judge.It was a collaborative effort – you might even call it that.
collusion — Between the Department of Justice and the courts.
Reading the Justice Department's punishment demands in various sentencing memos, one finds no expression of respite even for the most sympathetic defendants. But the opening sentence of Epps's memorandum alone shows that the government did more than simply ask for clemency from him; it considered him a hero.
“This is a unique case in the context of the January 6 defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon wrote in a letter to the court. “Although Mr. Epps engaged in felony conduct during the January 6 riot, his case contains a variety of distinctive and compelling mitigating factors that warrant the government's exercise of prosecutorial discretion.” and offered Mr. Epps a pre-indictment judicial resolution for the misdemeanor.
In particular, the government focused on how Mr. Epps turned himself in to the FBI on January 8, 2021, “soon after he became aware that the FBI was attempting to identify him.” Additionally, Mr. Epps “cooperated with both the FBI and Congress and participated in multiple lengthy voluntary interviews.” And Epps “engaged in at least five efforts on January 6 to de-escalate the conflict and avoid violence between rioters and police officers.”
The sentencing memo also highlights what appears to be Epps' “sincere remorse.”
Critically, Gordon's sentencing memo goes out of its way to claim that Epps was “the target of a false and widespread conspiracy theory that he was a secret government agent on January 6th.”
“Except for four years in the Marine Corps,” Gordon wrote, “Epps has never been a federal employee. He is not a federal employee and, as of January 6, was working under the direction of a federal employee.” No. Epps only acted to further his own false belief in the “lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.” ”
“But the anger directed at Epps as a result of that false conspiracy theory forced him to sell his business, move to another state, and live in seclusion.”
There it is. The Justice Department, of course, is a military veteran with a clean record, who assisted police that afternoon, called on people not to commit acts of violence, and suffered financially, physically, and mentally, most infamously on January 6. A similar assessment could have been made of the dozens of defendants. He destroyed it and showed great remorse. But that's not the case. Prosecutors and judges chose not to show mercy or mercy to others while toying with Epps before saying he did anything wrong.
Epps and Ryan Samsel were at the head of the charge who first broke through police lines at 12:54 p.m. If January 6th really resembled the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, wouldn't he be the last man to plead guilty? Hero or victim? But the Justice Department has touted his remorse and said the damage to his reputation was punishment enough.
I wish that was the case for the other January 6th defendants.
The more sympathetic the defendant, the more severe the punishment.
Richard Barnett did not commit any violent acts that day. She was photographed sitting in Nancy Pelosi's office, smiling and putting her feet up on her desk. The Arkansas man was in the building for less than 10 minutes. As such, he was charged with four felonies and four misdemeanors, including one year in prison, for stealing the envelope. He was held in pre-trial detention for four months and was almost killed in prison. Barnett was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Coincidentally, Michael Gordon also wrote the sentencing memorandum against Barnett, who brought an entirely different case against the government. Gordon asked for an 87-month sentence for Barnett, which he estimated was based on “the gravity of Barnett's conduct and the future commitment of Barnett and others to subvert the democratic process and pursue their political beliefs. “This reflects the need to prevent people from dangerously interfering with the police.” Perhaps his real crime was making the trespassing overly cheerful.
Other Jan. 6 defendants had less sympathetic numbers than Epps, assuming he was not really a federal employee.
Vicki White of Minnesota was caught on video tackling a large man brandishing a bat toward the Capitol near the West Tunnel. She risked her own life to stop her violence. But Capitol Police dragged her into the building, where Officer Jason Bagshaw violently struck her in the head with his baton and bare fist. She was harassed by the FBI for three years and ultimately sentenced to 10 days in jail. They completely destroyed her.
Former New Mexico County Commissioner Qui Griffin spent three weeks in solitary confinement for trespassing.
Sarah Carpenter, a former police officer from New York who served as a first responder at the World Trade Center on 9/11, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She was in the rotunda, yelling at her police officer and slapping her hand away when her officer tried to shove her. That's all she did. She was charged with multiple felonies and sentenced to 22 months in prison. She is scheduled to surrender in February.
The Department of Justice extensively publicized Epps' service as a Marine. In Carpenter's case, prosecutors not only ignored her background, but also filed a motion to prevent her from presenting evidence of her “good character” to the jury.
Further charges are expected in the future.
The lenient sentence for Ray Epps comes days after Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who was in charge of the January 6 prosecution, announced that his office would begin targeting people, making it even more disturbing. It became a thing.
People who have never been inside the National Diet Building.
Three years after the events of January 6, this prosecutor is intent on hunting down illegal aliens at a time when most Americans are concerned about the economic downturn and the number of illegal aliens flooding the border. It is.
nothing is wrong At a permitted protest. However, one of the most visible “insurrectionists” of the day was not given a prison sentence. strange.
As prosecutor Gordon wrote in his sentencing memorandum, Epps should have known he was on the wrong track.
“Marines are always in the front, not in the back,” Epps said, unapologetically explaining that he was on the front lines of the insurgents who broke through the first barricade. … Despite having served his country himself, Epps was unable to recognize that this maxim refers to Marines acting as the tip of the government's spear, not against it. Not yet.
So if the man at the tip of the spear against the government remains free, why would Graves embark on a campaign against the thousands of people who did not enter the Capitol but simply protested on the lawn outside?
Based on 99.9% of the events of January 6th over the past three years, other people just standing outside the Capitol don't get the “Ray Epps treatment.” They will be considering significant prison sentences. Therefore, the mystery remains. If Ray Epps wasn't working for the government that day, why is he the “rebel” the government is so eager to protect?
