A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against Fox News by a Jan. 6 protester.
Ray Epps, who was sentenced to one year probation, $500 restitution, and 100 hours of community service for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol, had sued the network claiming former host Tucker Carlson falsely accused him of being a government agent who incited the violence.
U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Hall dismissed the case, claiming Epps and his lawyers had failed to prove that Carlson had acted with "actual malice," The New York Times reported.
Epps had accused Carlson of promoting a "fantastical story" that he was an undercover agent who helped fuel the Capitol attack to disparage then-President Donald Trump and his supporters.
Although Epps protested outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, he was not among the people found to have breached the complex, The Washington Post reported.
Speaking in her Delaware courtroom, Hall said that even if Carlson had "engaged in subpar journalism" or failed to sufficiently vet Epps' story, that did not mean the TV host had acted with malicious intent.
Carlson left Fox in April 2023 soon after the network had agreed to pay more than $787 million to settle a separate defamation suit brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems.
Fox issued a statement, saying the dismissal of Epps' case was the third time in recent months that judges had tossed defamation claims against the network. Other tossed suits involved Nina Jankowicz, the former head of the federal Disinformation Governance Board, and Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden.
"Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment," Fox's statement said, The Times reported.
In September, Epps, a former Marine, pleaded guilty to one charge stemming from the Capitol attack.
Epps accepted a plea agreement in which he admitted to disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds in exchange for no further prosecutions based on the incident at the Capitol.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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