DOMINIONATED: Top Fox host facing defamation threat from an unlikely source

DOMINIONATED: Top Fox host facing defamation threat from an unlikely source

The top Fox host just got slapped with a defamation threat letter for disseminating a January 6th conspiracy theory involving a Trump supporter who stormed the Capitol but went home early. (video below)

In an upside-down parallel to right-wing liar Alex Jones’ billion-dollar defamation losses, Tucker Carlson is accused of spreading a conspiracy about someone who went to the Capitol on January 6th but definitively didn’t do anything of major note besides talking with the police.

Now, the man who the MAGA insurrection denier crowd picked as their scapegoat is pushing back, demanding that Carlson retract lies about him. NBC News reports:

In a letter to Carlson and Fox News general counsel Bernard Gugar, Michael Teter, a lawyer for Epps, said the Fox News host “persists with his assault on the truth” by pushing “fanciful notions” regarding Epps’ involvement in the Capitol attack that have “demonstrably (and already proven to be) false.”

Right-wing media figures have pushed a lot of contradictory conspiracy theories about January 6th, including the notion that the MAGA mob who ransacked the Capitol was just a bunch of tourists. (The list of sentenced January 6th criminals is 49 pages long and growing.)

Ray Epps was at the Capitol.

He went along with more than 100k other Trump supporters.

Contrary to what Carlson and his ilk claim, Epps says he’s not an FBI agent.

He didn’t enter the Capitol Building, and in a few texts to his family, he exaggerated his own role in the MAGA insurrection.

But actually, Ray Epps left early.

While around 1,000 individuals have been charged for their roles that day, thousands more have not.

The convicted felons include those who stashed firearms off-site, showed up in body armor, and brought bear mace and other weaponry, and those who shared maps of the Capitol amongst themselves in advance of the attack.

Yet, Tucker Carlson is telling millions of America nightly that MAGAs only became violent because an imagined FBI provocateur in the crowd pressured them to do so.

The focus has been on those involved in the most violent or destructive acts and those who coordinated in advance, trickling down to misdemeanors for those who merely entered the building illegally or otherwise had lesser offenses.

Cooperation with law enforcement is not uncommon for MAGA insurrectionists from low-level actors to high-profile right-wing influencers like Brandon Straka, who gave “significant information” to the FBI in exchange for leniency when he was convicted of crimes stemming from January 6th.

Yet, people like Straka who admit to spilling the beans to the FBI face little or no blowback politically.

Last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) jumped into a pretend prison with Straka at a conservative event.

Ray Epps testified before the January 6th Committee and also spoke with the Justice Department’s investigators.

The Fox conspiracy story has affected his life drastically, and the grandfather is over it. The New York Times reports:

“A lawyer for Ray Epps…sent a letter on Thursday to the Fox News host Tucker Carlson demanding that he publicly retract his “false and defamatory statements” that Mr. Epps had worked as a government provocateur on Jan. 6, 2021…

The letter to Mr. Carlson from the lawyer, Michael Teter, also demanded a “formal on-air apology for the lies” that have been “spread about Mr. Epps” by others at Fox.”

One of the requirements for a successful defamation suit is to demonstrate that the false statements have harmed the victim in measurable and definable ways.

Epps has already done this in the public eye, sharing that he has received death threats, there have been incidents with people — even a tour bus — showing up at his house, and his business has been affected.

Even his grandchildren have even faced bullying at school.

If Tucker chooses to ignore the threat letter, he and Fox could face another defamation case —on top of the multi-billion dollar ones from Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems— which is already causing rifts at the network.

Here’s just one example of Tucker Carlson’s conspiracy theories:

 

Stephanie Bazzle

Steph Bazzle is a news writer who covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph. Sign up for all of her stories to be delivered to your inbox here: