Ray Epps quite likely is the least sympathetic defamation litigant in history, at least among those who have a legitimate legal argument. To win his recently filed lawsuit against Fox News, Epps has to convince a jury that he sincerely wanted to overthrow the U.S. government to install a fascist dictator and that anyone who suggests otherwise is a dirty, rotten liar. "I'm exactly the piece of scum my detractors deny that I am," is a weird legal argument. But such is the topsy-turvy world that we live in. A world where Epps may actually win a big pot of gold.
For those blissfully unaware of the saga of Ray Epps: He was one of the thousands of people who, heeding Donald Trump's call, descended on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a violent effort to halt the certification of Joe Biden's election to the presidency. The night before the riot, Epps was caught on video hyping up the MAGA crowd: "We need to go into the Capitol!" The day of, however, he was seen on video impotently offering to help Capitol police to tell rioters to back down.
