AUSTIN, TEXAS: Michael Teter, the lawyer for Ray Epps, who is suing Fox News for spreading conspiracy theories about him, took a dig at Spotify's famous podcaster Joe Rogan for exaggerating the same claim.
Last week, the comedian-turned-podcaster made a claim that Epps was an undercover FBI agent plotting to incite Donald Trump supporters to violently storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to discredit the former president. According to The Daily Beast, Epps' attorney criticized Rogan for reviving claims that led Fox News and former broadcaster Tucker Carlson to be hit with a defamation suit.
'Find more truth in looking at the mirror'
Michael Teter said, "Joe Rogan's recent comments show the staying power and consequences of Fox's and Tucker Carlson's lies about Ray Epps." He then insisted that “For years, Fox targeted Ray and spread falsehoods about him and Fox's viewers used the lies as a basis to harass and threaten Ray.” The FBI has publicly stated he has never been a source or employee, and the House select committee did not find any evidence that Epps helped plan or incite the riot. Epps disclosed in the lawsuit that the FBI informed him in May that he would be charged in connection with Jan. 6. This information undermines the supposed "proof" offered by Carlson and Rogan that he was allegedly working with the feds.
Teter said, “The absurdity of the conspiracy theory does not stand in the way of it being spread and weaponized to harm Ray," adding, "If Mr Rogan is truly interested in focusing on who instigated the attack on the Capitol, he would find more truth in looking at the mirror than he does in focusing on a wedding venue owner from Arizona.”
'The Jan 6 thing is bad'
A user on Twitter wrote "Joe Rogan Blows Jim Gaffigan’s Mind That Intelligence Agencies May Have Infiltrated Jan 6th."
Rogan, who signed a $200 million deal with Spotify in 2020, has long backed the theory that "agent provocateurs" like Epps were used by the government's law enforcement and intelligence agencies to provoke the crowd to rush the Capitol. He previously claimed that the intelligence community had a "vested interest in this going sideways," adding that "if somebody wanted to disparage a political party or to maybe have some sort of justification for getting some influential person like Donald Trump offline, that would be the way they would do it."
The podcaster claimed that the FBI and CIA were responsible for the chaos on July 28 while having comedian Jim Gaffigan on his podcast. He pointed out that the agencies have a history of interfering with "peaceful protests" to falsely depict demonstrators as aggressive.
"The Jan 6 thing is bad, but also, the intelligence agencies were involved in provoking people into the Capitol Building. That’s a fact,” Rogan claimed. ''I don’t know, but I do know that every other, I think that every other person who was involved in Jan 6, who was involved in coordinating a break-in into the Capitol and then instigating people, they were all arrested."
