James Ray Epps Sr., the Arizona man famously caught on video urging people to storm the Capitol on January 5th and 6th, just had his defamation lawsuit against Fox News thrown out of a Delaware federal court — for the second time. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Hall, a Biden appointee no less, ruled that Epps couldn't even clear the basic legal bar to keep his case alive. When a Biden judge is telling you your case is garbage, maybe it's time to take the hint.
Dismissed. Twice. Back to back. Not even close.
Let's rewind. Epps sued Fox News Network, LLC over coverage by former host Tucker Carlson, who had the audacity to ask questions about Epps's role on January 6th. You know, the guy on video literally saying "we need to go INTO the Capitol" the night before the breach. Carlson and others wondered out loud whether Epps might have been acting as a federal government informant — a question, by the way, that millions of Americans were also asking. For this crime of journalism, Epps wanted a defamation payout.
The first dismissal came in November 2024. Did Epps take the L? Of course not. He amended his complaint, threw in references to former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, added what Judge Hall described as a pile of "conclusory statements," and tried again.
It went about as well as the first time.
Judge Hall's ruling was surgical. She wrote that the amended complaint "does not allege any facts suggesting a plausible inference" that Fox employees had reason to know their coverage was false. She noted that whether Epps was actually a government informant is a "confidential piece of information known only to government officials" — meaning Fox couldn't have known one way or the other. Under the actual malice standard established in the 1964 Supreme Court case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, Epps had to prove Fox acted with knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth.
He proved neither. Not even under the generous Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) motion-to-dismiss standard.
"That is not enough to proceed," Judge Hall wrote. "The allegations do not give rise to a plausible inference that Carlson or anyone else" acted with actual malice.
Translation for non-lawyers: you've got nothing, sir.
Fox News released a statement saying they were "pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms" that allow journalists to ask tough questions. And look, I know Fox isn't everyone's favorite network these days, but credit where it's due — they didn't fold, they didn't settle, and they won. Twice.
Here's the bigger picture, as reported by Patriot News Alerts. The January 6th narrative has been crumbling in slow motion for years now. The "insurrection" that somehow involved zero firearms charges. The pipe bombs that the FBI magically can't solve. The selective prosecutions. The solitary confinement for misdemeanor trespassers. And at the center of all of it, a guy on video doing exactly what everyone was accused of inciting — who somehow got a slap on the wrist while grandmothers got prison time.
Asking questions about that isn't defamation. It's the bare minimum.
Ray Epps tried to use the courts to punish people for noticing what he did on camera. The courts said no — emphatically, repeatedly, and on the merits. Maybe now he'll finally sit down and stop drawing attention to himself. Then again, self-awareness doesn't seem to be his strong suit.
