Federal judge dismisses former Trump supporter’s defamation suit against Fox News

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit alleging defamation by Fox News, ruling for a second time against a former supporter of Donald Trump who claimed he became the target of death threats after the network broadcast inaccurate conspiracy claims about his involvement in the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack.

Raymond Epps was wrongly accused by Fox of being a government operative who allegedly stirred violence around the Capitol that day in an effort to pin responsibility on supporters of Trump who were upset his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden. According to Epps, formerly a marine and member of the far-right Oath Keepers group, the backlash from those reports led him and his wife to sell their ranch in Arizona and relocate to a recreational vehicle in an attempt to avoid the ongoing harassment.

Jennifer L Hall, a Delaware-based US district judge, ultimately sided with Fox by granting the network’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, concluding that Epps did not provide sufficient evidence showing Fox knowingly aired false information.

Hall had already thrown out the lawsuit once in 2024, though she allowed Epps another opportunity to revise and refile his claims. In Friday’s decision, she determined that his updated filing still did not prove “actual malice” – the legal standard required for him to win his particular case – by Fox.

The lawsuit identified former Fox host Tucker Carlson – who left the network in April 2023 – as the leading figure behind the spread of the conspiracy theory, often discussing Epps on his program. According to court documents, Epps was a strong supporter of Trump and “an avid and loyal Fox viewer and a fan of Mr Carlson’s”.

But “taken together, the allegations do not give rise to a plausible inference that Carlson or anyone else responsible for [his show] subjectively knew that their statements were false or that they possessed a reckless disregard for the truth,” the judge wrote in her ruling.

Lawyers for Epps initially wrote in their lawsuit that “Fox News searched for a scapegoat to blame other than Donald Trump or the Republican party” in the aftermath of the Capitol attack – and “eventually, they turned on one of their own”.

Fox News responded on Friday evening with a statement saying it was “pleased with the federal court’s ruling, further preserving the press freedoms” afforded by the US constitution’s first amendment, according to the Associated Press.

Epps previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense connected to the Capitol attack and received a sentence of one year of probation. Trump eventually granted him a pardon along with about 1,500 other people who were given clemency for actions tied to the attack.

Federal prosecutors have endorsed Epps’ vociferous denials that he was working with the FBI or planted by the government at the Capitol on the day of the attack. He was never employed by the government or acted as an agent for it beyond his US marines service from 1979-1983.