Ray Epps, target of the January 6 conspiracy theory, has been sentenced to probation

Ray Epps, the former Trump supporter who became the target of a conspiracy theory that he was an undercover government agent who helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was sentenced Tuesday to a year of probation for his own attack. minor role in the riot instead of the six months in prison prosecutors had requested.

The probation sentence, imposed after Mr. Epps pleaded guilty last year to a single charge of disorderly conduct stemming from his presence in the pro-Trump crowd near the Capitol, ended his prosecution. But the persistent false narrative that he was a provocateur out to entrap his fellow conservatives on January 6 was unlikely to end, even as he, his lawyer, the prosecutor and even the judge overseeing all stated in open court that the story was not true. ridiculous.

“Trust in elected officials and Fox News led me to believe the election was stolen,” Mr. Epps told Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington. “What I saw was anger and vulgarity at a level I’ve never seen before, and it was caused by people like me, not the FBI or antifa.”

Speaking in the same courthouse where former President Donald J. Trump attended a federal appeals court hearing related to his prosecution on charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Judge Boasberg said: “Although many defendants have been defamed in some way unique to January 6, you seem to be the first to suffer from what you didn’t do.’

The FBI began investigating Mr. Epps, a former rancher and Marine from Arizona, almost immediately after Jan. 6, when investigators obtained video that showed him on the streets of Washington on Jan. 5, speaking to a group Trump supporters said they had to “go to the Capitol” the next day.

Although Mr. Epps warned that the group should do so peacefully, several people in the crowd seemed to suspect him of being a government plant and chased after him with cheers of “fed!”

Other videos from January 6 itself showed Mr. Epps leaning toward a fellow rioter at a barricade outside the Capitol, as if whispering something in his ear. That man — a Pennsylvania hairdresser named Ryan Samsel — confronted officers within minutes, leading to the first breach of police lines at the building.

Within two days of the Capitol being stormed, Mr. Epps saw his photo in an FBI alert and immediately contacted the bureau, telling agents a story that never changed during subsequent interviews with both criminal and congressional investigators. Mr. Epps said that he had indeed encouraged the crowd to go to the Capitol to protest Mr. Trump’s election loss, but that once he saw the growing anger in the crowd, he quickly tried to disperse the crowd. de-escalate, starting with the man he spoke to at the barricades.

The FBI apparently believed Mr. Epps and declined to prosecute him in May 2021, ultimately noting that the investigation “did not uncover sufficient evidence” that he had entered the Capitol, engaged in violence or “other criminal violations had committed,” said recently. released information that his lawyer included in the criminal papers this month.

That decision was consistent with hundreds of others who did not attack police or enter the Capitol on Jan. 6. But right-wing media figures — including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — began suggesting that Mr. Epps had been spared prosecution for a completely different reason: because he was a secret government asset under the protection of his handlers.

Despite the fact that there was no evidence that Mr. Epps had any connection to the government beyond the four years he spent in the Marine Corps, the story caught fire on the right and was eventually repeated in congressional hearings by top Republicans such as Senator Ted Cruz. of Texas and by Mr. Trump himself.

Speaking to Judge Boasberg during the sentencing, Mr. Epps’ attorney explained what happened next to Mr. Epps and his wife: They faced death threats and had guns brandished outside their home, enduring targeted scams targeting their businesses in Arizona and eventually had to leave to hide in a caravan in the woods.

Judge Boasberg acknowledged these hardships in explaining his sentence, saying that Mr. Epps “had to live like a fugitive because of the lies others spread.”

It remains unclear why federal prosecutors changed course and filed a case against Mr. Epps after the initial decision not to charge him. Edward J. Ungvarsky, Mr. Epps’ lawyer, said it seemed strange that the government had changed course after its initial review of video evidence from the riot left them reluctant to file charges.