Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) tore into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday after the Texas senator asked a Justice Department official if the FBI played a role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cruz asked during a Senate hearing on domestic terrorism, “How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?”
Jill Sanborn, the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, responded that she could not comment. Cruz pressed Sanborn repeatedly on the issue and later asked:
Who is Ray Epps? There are a lot of people who are understandably very concerned about Mr. Epps. On the night of January 5th, 2021, Epps wandered around the crowd that had gathered and there is video out there of him chanting ‘tomorrow, we need to get into the Capitol.’ This behavior was so strange the crowd began chanting, ‘Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed.’ Ms. Sanborn, was Ray Epps a Fed?”
Sandborn again responded, “I can’t answer that question.”
Kinzinger hit Cruz for the line of questioning, which pushed unfounded
Kinzinger wrote, “One more @tedcruz conspiracy down. Ray Epps has cooperated and is nothing but a Jan 6 protest attendee, in his own words. Sorry crazies, it ain’t true.”
Epps, a former Marine living in Arizona, has become a focal point of conspiracy theories regarding federal involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The New York Times reported last week that to date, “no evidence has emerged linking Mr. Epps to the F.B.I. or any other government agency.”
In a lengthy thread debunking the theories surrounding Epps, Kinzinger wrote, “I know this will break some hearts. For a few months, people like Tucker Carlson, MTG, Gaetz, and now Cruz have been ‘just asking questions’ about a man named Ray Epps.”
The outgoing congressman went on to explain the theories’ origins. Kinzinger wrote Epps “was put on the FBI wanted list, then removed. Because of all of that, the conspiracy that he was an FBI agent has been gospel on the blogs and shows. -side note- this is why we have to address conspiracies not ignore them.”
Kinzinger also attached an official statement from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, of which he is one of two Republican members, which read:
“The Select Committee is aware of unsupported claims that Ray Epps was an FBI
informant based on the fact that he was on the FBI Wanted list and then was removed from that list without being charged. The Select Committee has interviewed Mr. Epps. Mr. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on January 5th or 6th or at any other time, and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”