
The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot refused to commit to a date when the transcript of an interview with Ray Epps will be released.
Epps, a leader of the “Oath Keepers” group who was seen on video the day before the January 6 riot telling a crowd to go into the Capitol, reportedly sat for an official transcribed interview with the committee on Friday.
Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson did vow to release a transcript of the interview, though he declined to commit to a date that it would become public.
“We will,” he told the Washington Examiner last week when asked about releasing the transcript. “But you know, there’s a review process that goes with every deposition.”
“He has to have an opportunity to review it, say, ‘This is what I said,'” Thompson continued. “At some point, it will be made available. I just can’t tell you when.”
Tell me again why Ray Epps hasn’t been arrested yet? pic.twitter.com/taEmIZmjXh
— LivePDDave ?? ? ? (@LivePDDave1) January 13, 2022
Ray Epps Interview
It seems highly unlikely that a witness to the Capitol riot who had firm evidence of some involvement with former President Donald Trump would have their interview transcript released ‘eventually’ after being given an ‘opportunity to review it.’
So why is Ray Epps afforded that opportunity?
Epps is at the center of unproven accusations that the FBI had informants or plants in the crowd at the Capitol which helped incite pro-Trump protesters to riot and breach the building.
“Tomorrow, we need to get into the Capitol! Into the Capitol!” he is seen telling rallygoers in one video from the scene, while some around him respond, “No,” and begin chanting, “Fed! Fed! Fed!”
NEW: Ray Epps set to speak to January 6 select committee today, and the committee will eventually will release interview transcript, Chairman Bennie Thompson told me. “At some point, it will be made available. I just can’t tell you when.” @dcexaminer
https://t.co/XYOizXrJud— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) January 21, 2022
Epps is one of three people who have been removed from the FBI’s Capitol Violence most wanted list without an explanation from authorities.
His comments, captured on video, have many wondering why no charges have been filed.
The House Select Committee had initially insisted they interviewed Ray Epps.
“The Select Committee has interviewed Mr. Epps,” the panel said in a statement following a Senate hearing in which Ted Cruz (R-TX) brought up the figure’s name.
“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.”
Shortly thereafter, however, the committee admitted that Epps was never given a formal interview, and instead, the first ‘meeting’ was informal and wasn’t even transcribed.
So the definitive statements made by Adam Kinzinger swallowed by the media about how Ray Epps never worked with FBI were based not no sworn testimony but just “informal meetings” with the Committee, and the denial was confined just to FBI, not all government agencies? LOL. https://t.co/ZyOxmkIDke
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 18, 2022
RELATED: Top FBI Official Refuses To Answer Ted Cruz When Asked If Agents Took Part In January 6 Riot
Tucker Carlson Slams House Committee
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has insisted there has been more federal involvement in inciting the crowd on January 6th than previously disclosed, slammed the Select Committee and wondered what they are hiding when it comes to Ray Epps.
“We are told there was an insurrection on January 6th,” Carlson said on his show last week. “That is obviously a lie, but if anybody if anyone was shown to be ‘insurrecting’ that day it was a mysterious man called Ray Epps.”
“He has not been indicted, he is not facing charges. Now, supposedly the January 6th committee spoke to Ray Epps today. It wasn’t public. We aren’t getting a transcript of that interview for some reason. But that is pretty strange,” Carlson insisted.
Carlson went on to note that Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), an anti-Trump lawmaker on the January 6 Committee, adamantly denied that Epps was a federal agent with any role in the Capitol riot, and was one of the first to publicly insist they had already interviewed him.
“The narrative on Jan. 6 has been that it’s first Antifa, or patriots who love their country, maybe crisis actors, def false flag operatives, or now FBI agents,” Kinzinger wrote. “Take your pick. Truth is they were rioters incited by lies. And RAY is no fed. Just another misled man.”
Other ‘misled men’ have been in prison since January of last year. Many will spend much longer in prison. One ‘misled woman’ was killed that day for her role in the events at the Capitol.
But Ray Epps is a man worthy of defending by the anti-Trump committee?
“Several days ago Adam Kinzinger told us that the committee had already spoken to Ray Epps and in fact, he held Ray Epps as a hero and thanked him for his cooperation,” Carlson said.
“What is going on here? They are lying about Ray Epps there is no question about that,” he continued. “What exactly are they hiding?”