Trump protester Ray Epps charged with riot crime on January 6

Trump supporter Ray Epps, who is the focus of right-wing conspiracy theories about the government orchestrating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, was charged with disorderly conduct. action that day.

Federal prosecutors filed a single count against Epps in an information Monday, a type of charging document routinely used when defendants agree to plead guilty. That filing states that he was in restricted grounds at the US Capitol during the riot.

A plea agreement hearing for Apps is scheduled to take place zoom Before US District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday at 3 PM ET.

A former member of the right-wing Oath Keepers group, Epps traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest on January 6, when a joint session of Congress met at the U.S. Capitol to confirm President Joe Biden’s nomination of then- President Donald Trump was defeated. In the Electoral College vote.

Then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the session before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, sending lawmakers fleeing.

Epps came under suspicion from others in video taken on January 5, 2021, when he was seen on the streets encouraging others to “go to the Capitol.”

He has since been at the center of a false conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the riot. Some? Mainstream Conservative voices in the media and government questioned his actions and wondered why he was not criminally charged by the Justice Department along with other protesters who were at the Capitol on January 6.

In July, Apps filed a defamation Lawsuit against Fox News and its former opinion host Tucker Carlson over their coverage.

In the petition filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Apps was accused of knowingly engaging in “disorderly and disruptive conduct” with the intent to “obstruct and disrupt” a government activity scheduled for Jan. 6. .

“Appes’ conduct materially interfered with and disrupted the orderly conduct of government business and official functions,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves wrote in a two-page filing.

An attorney for Epps in his defamation suit did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on whether he will be criminally charged.