Ray Epps, in the red Trump hat, center, gestures to others as people gather on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Ray Epps, the pro-Trump protester who has been the focus of right-wing conspiracy theories about the government orchestrating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, was charged with disorderly conduct stemming from his actions on that day.
Epps was charged Monday by federal prosecutors in an information, a type of charging document that is routinely used when defendants have agreed to plead guilty.
He is accused of one count of knowingly engaging in “disorderly and disruptive conduct” with the “intent to impede and disrupt” the government’s activity taking place on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the information filed in Washington, D.C. federal court.
Epps was on restricted grounds at the U.S. Capitol that day when a joint session of Congress was meeting to confirm President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over former President Donald Trump, the filing says.
The filing noted that then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over that session.
Epps’ conduct “did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves wrote in the two-page filing.
In July, Epps filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its former opinion host Tucker Carlson over their coverage of him.
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