Daily Caller
You Might Have Missed It, But Ray Epps’ Lawsuit Against Tucker Went Down In Flames
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Adam Pack
A federal judge dismissed a January 6th defendant’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its former primetime TV anchor, Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson on Wednesday.
Delaware Federal District Court Judge, Jennifer Hall, ruled that Carlson’s reporting on Epps was protected under the First Amendment because Epps’ lawyers did not prove Carlson had acted with “actual malice.”
“For the reasons announced from the bench today, it is hereby ordered that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is granted,” Hall, a Biden appointee, wrote.
Members of the corporate media claimed that Epps would win his lawsuit against Fox News and prove Carlson had acted with “actual malice” in his reporting on the Jan. 6 defendant, according to an MSNBC discussion on the defamation case led by former Republican National Committee chairman and MSNBC political analyst Michael Steele on July 16, 2023, following news of Epps’ lawsuit.
“I think what Dominion ushered in this question of actual malice and we saw the $800 million settlement has really ripped open if you will, the opportunity for others to go at Fox News,” former Florida Republican Rep. David Jolly said during the clip.
“They better get out a really big check book because they’re gonna pay heavily,” former Democratic Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards also said.
Judge Hall, however, sided with Fox News’ lawyers and dismissed the lawsuit before it could proceed to trial.
“It is especially clear that any conclusions were only opinions, because the statements were replete with ‘cautionary language’ that signal opinion and interpretation,” Fox News’ lawyers wrote in a memorandum in support of the network’s motion to dismiss Epps’ lawsuit. “In one segment, after showing a video of Plaintiff, Mr. Carlson squarely stated: ‘Once again, you can draw whatever conclusions you like from that video. We have ours and we shared them with you’. Fox opinion hosts were clearly providing their interpretations that listeners could accept or reject based on their own assessment of the fully disclosed facts.”
“First amendment protection for such commentary is essential for our democracy,” the memorandum also stated.
“Epps and his wife have clearly been through a nightmare of threats and innuendo,” Jonathan Turley, Fox News legal commentator wrote on his personal website following the judge’s ruling. “However, this public controversy was discussed by various networks and the Jan. 6th Committee. It was also a matter of legitimate public debate and commentary, with people on both sides expressing their views on the evidence and underlying allegations.”
Epps sued Fox News in July 2023 following Carlson’s comments that suggested Epps may have been a government agent after video footage surfaced showing him the night before Jan. 6, 2021, encouraging Trump supporters to go inside the Capitol the next day, leading to speculation that he may have been an FBI informant.
“We’re far beyond that. In fact, tomorrow—I don’t even like to say it because I’ll be arrested—we need to go into the Capitol. We’re here to defend the Constitution,” Epps could be heard saying in the video.
“I’m going to put this out there. I’m probably going to jail for it. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol. Into the Capitol. Peacefully,” Epps added. Someone in the crowd responded by calling Epps a “fed,” the video showed.
Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia James Boasberg sentenced Epps to just 12 months probation on Jan. 9, three years after Epps encouraged Trump supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol.
Other Jan. 6 defendants received much longer sentences than Epps. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors offered Epps a misdemeanor plea deal for cooperating with federal authorities and expressing remorse for his actions, and recommended he serve six months in jail for his conduct on and preceding the Jan. 6 riot. Epps was sentenced to twelve months probation in January.
“It’s amazing Ray Epps gets mere probation after there is video evidence he helped incite the January 6th riot, while Trump supporters get sent to prison for months — even years — for trespassing and taking selfies on the Senate floor,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project previously told the DCNF. “The FBI protects its own.”
Carlson also accused Epps of lying in his testimony to the January 6th Committee.
“Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Fox News told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a written statement.
Epps’ lawyer did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
President Donald Trump expressed frustration Tuesday after Iran broke a ceasefire, prompting retaliation from Israel during a gaggle with reporters on the White House lawn.
Trump announced the ceasefire Monday, saying it was supposed to take effect at 1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, but Iran fired missiles at Israel Tuesday. Trump vented, saying the countries had been “fighting so long” they couldn’t make peace.
WATCH:
“You know, when I say okay, now you have 12 hours, you don’t go out in the first hour just drop everything you have on them,” Trump said. “So I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because the one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land, I’m not happy about that.”
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing,” Trump added.
The United States struck facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan related to Iran’s effort to develop nuclear weapons early Sunday morning local time, using as many as 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators in the operation, which involved a 37-hour flight by seven B-2A Spirit bombers.
The American strikes came ten days after Israel launched a military operation targeting the Iranian nuclear program. Iran has responded with repeated missile attacks on Israeli cities and a refusal to resume negotiations over its efforts to pursue nuclear weapons.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
“The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates”
The Supreme Court sided Friday with oil companies seeking to challenge California’s electric vehicle regulations.
In a 7-2 ruling, the court allowed energy producers to continue their lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve California regulations that require manufacturing more electric vehicles.
“The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence before the Court of Appeals, the fuel producers established Article III standing to challenge EPA’s approval of the California regulations.”
Kavanaugh noted that “EPA has repeatedly altered its legal position on whether the Clean Air Act authorizes California regulations targeting greenhouse-gas emissions from new motor vehicles” between Presidential administrations.
“This case involves California’s 2012 request for EPA approval of new California regulations,” he wrote. “As relevant here, those regulations generally require automakers (i) to limit average greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets of new motor vehicles sold in the State and (ii) to manufacture a certain percentage of electric vehicles as part of their vehicle fleets.”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals previously rejected the challenge, finding the producers lacked standing to sue.
“The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates,” American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) President and CEO Chet Thompson said in a statement.
“California’s EV mandates are unlawful and bad for our country,” he said. “Congress did not give California special authority to regulate greenhouse gases, mandate electric vehicles or ban new gas car sales—all of which the state has attempted to do through its intentional misreading of statute.”
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