Newly released video footage from Jan. 5, 2021 shows Ray Epps whispering to a right-wing influencer "we're here to storm the Capitol."
In the first of a two-part series, “Truth in Media” host Lara Logan spoke with Anthime Gionet, also known as “Baked Alaska.” In the video, Epps appeared to be particularly interested in Gionet, who was later sentenced to two months in prison for his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Gionet is one of several people who filmed Epps on the evening of Jan. 5, 2021 outside BLM Plaza as he told Trump supporters “we need to go into the Capitol!”
At first, Gionet said he was amused by Epps’s exhortation to breach the Capitol, and yelled "let’s go!" in response. However, after Gionet saw Epps repeat the line several times to different groups that night, he became convinced that Epps was an FBI plant.
Gionet is the one in the video of Epps, which went viral on social media, who started the “Fed! Fed! Fed!” chant.
Gionet told Logan that everyone else who heard Epps talking about going into the Capitol were taken aback.
“I go to another group way far away from him, he follows me, and that’s when he begins instructing the crowd,” Gionet said. That’s when Epps was caught on tape again saying “we need to go into the Capitol.”
“Right when he said that, something clicked in my head,” Gionet said.
“It was like, whoa! This is scripted because he said the same exact line word for word three times and that’s not natural.”
Gionet said that it seemed very odd that Epps kept going around to all the different little groups and instructing them on what to do on Jan. 6.
“Maybe the first time, he’s being silly or saying something crazy, but when he said it the third time word for word, I knew there’s a strong possibility this guy’s a fed,” Gionet said. “I started that chant, and guess what? The whole crowd joined in with me — within seconds!”
Gionet said that, after some banter, Epps said “we’re not here to fight man.” Epps then leaned in and whispered “we’re here to storm the Capitol,” and added: “I’m not kidding.”
Logan noted that Epps’s words echoed the official narrative the next day — that Trump supporters “stormed the Capitol” before “it was broadcast across the nation.”
Gionet said that because he had been banned from every social media platform, it was virtually impossible for him to tell his story, and so for the first year after J6, nobody heard a word about Epps.
“I thought it was a big story but I was banned off Twitter, I was banned off YouTube, I was banned off all social media so I couldn’t get the story out,” he explained.
Gionet acknowledged that he had no proof that Epps was a “fed,” but remains convinced that he was.
Former Washington, D.C. FBI Field Office chief Steven D’Antuono has acknowledged in sworn testimony that the FBI had so many informants on the ground on Jan. 6 that they lost track and had to order an audit to account for all of them.
Why was Ray Epps treated as victim by the same people who condemned almost everyone around him as a threat?
We try to answer some lingering questions about the one "election-denying-Donald Trump-supporter" the media and the government didn't seem to hate. pic.twitter.com/1u5dXtSGLv — Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) November 3, 2023
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