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Riots on 6 January 2021
Photograph:
LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS
January 6, 2021 continues to occupy the courts. On the one hand, numerous proceedings deal with the very specific attacks and offenses during the storming of the US Capitol. Then the reappraisal of the role of ex-President Donald Trump in the unprecedented uprising is underway. And finally, as in the current case, it is also about the role of the media.
Because of the spread of a conspiracy myth about the storming of the Capitol, a man has sued the right-wing US news channel Fox News for damages. In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a court in the state of Delaware, Ray Epps accuses the station of falsely portraying him as an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who instigated the storming of the House of Representatives in Washington.
"In the aftermath of the events of January 6, Fox News was looking for a scapegoat to blame anyone other than (then-President) Donald Trump or the Republican Party," the lawsuit reads. Fox News then spread the "fantasy story" that Trump supporter Epps, who was involved in the attack on Congress, had acted as an FBI undercover agent and was "responsible for the mob that violently broke into the Capitol."
Epps and his wife subsequently received death threats, according to the lawsuit. They would have had to sell their property in the state of Arizona and would now live in a trailer in Ohio. The man, who said he voted for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, is seeking undisclosed damages and compensation from Fox News.
Radical Trump supporters had stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent a final confirmation of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the November 2020 presidential election. Trump had previously spread the false claim for weeks that a victory had been stolen from him by massive election fraud.
According to Epps, he believed this account – and traveled from Arizona to Washington to attend a Trump rally on January 6, 2021. Video footage shows that he was also involved in the ensuing attack on the Capitol and spoke to other protesters.
On Fox News, the now-fired star host Tucker Carlson in particular spread the theory that Epps had been an undercover FBI agent. According to conspiracy theories, the FBI is said to have incited the storming of the Capitol in order to discredit Trump and his supporters.
Clear words from the FBI chief
The authorities firmly reject this account. FBI Director Christopher Wray told a congressional hearing Wednesday that the idea that the January 6 violence "was somehow part of an operation organized by FBI sources and agents is ridiculous and does a disservice to our brave, hard-working and dedicated men and women."
Ray Epps' defamation lawsuit against Fox News is not the first lawsuit against the right-wing news channel in connection with the 2020 presidential election and its aftermath. In April, the broadcaster, which belongs to the media empire of controversial billionaire Rupert Murdoch, agreed to pay 787.5 million dollars (around 715 million euros) to the voting machine manufacturer Dominion as part of a settlement.
jok/AFP