Ray Epps' lawyer has sent a letter to Fox News demanding a retraction over host Tucker Carlson airing more footage taken during the January 6 riot and exposing Epps lying to the House Committee on when he left during the unfolding incident.
The New York Times reports the letter sent by Michael Teter also demands Carlson publicly retract his "false and defamatory statements" that Epps had worked as an undercover provocateur for the federal government to whip up the crowd that stormed into the Capitol building.
"The fanciful notions that Mr. Carlson advances on his show regarding Mr. Epps’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection are demonstrably (and already proven to be) false," Teter wrote. "And yet Mr. Carlson persists with his assault on the truth."
"Oddly, Mr. Carlson now also espouses the view that those rioters were akin to peaceful tourists," Teter continued. "This leads to the obvious question: Is Mr. Carlson now accusing Mr. Epps of provoking peaceful protests?"
Not only was Epps caught on camera telling people to go to the Capitol building on January 5 and 6, along with being among the first to breach the outside perimeter of the complex, but footage Carlson aired proved Epps lied when he testified he left the grounds of the Capitol earlier than he actually did.
BREAKING: January 6 footage shows that Ray Epps lied to the J6 Committee about when he left the Capitol on that day.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 7, 2023
J6 Committee members likely knew this but defended him anyway. pic.twitter.com/tX4WUc28uX
Teter’s letter states Carlson and Fox News must respond in a written confirmation that they intend to comply with Epps’s demands by March 31. The letter also asked Fox News to preserve all communications concerning the network’s arrangement with Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who gave Carlson access to the previously unseen footage.