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A Delaware judge Wednesday dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed last year by Ray Epps, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/07/12/ray-epps-fox-news-lawsuit/" target=_blank>an Arizona man who sued Fox News</a> for comments made on the air about him that suggested he was an undercover federal agent who played a role in fomenting the violence at the Capitol on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/january-6-capitol-riot/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Jan. 6</a>, 2021.

While Epps protested outside the Capitol that day, he was not among the people found to have breached the complex. But hosts such as Tucker Carlson, who at the time hosted a prime-time show on Fox, highlighted video evidence of Epps outside the Capitol to suggest his presence was planned. In one 2022 broadcast, Carlson told viewers that Epps “helped stage-manage the insurrection.” Carlson also highlighted the fact that Epps had not been charged with a crime as evidence that he was a government asset. (Ultimately, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/09/ray-epps-sentenced-probation-jan-6/" target=_blank>Epps was charged</a> with a misdemeanor offense — disorderly conduct on restricted grounds — and given probation.)

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/08/24/fox-news-ray-epps-tucker-carlson-defamation/" target=_blank>Fox, in its defense against the lawsuit</a>, argued that its on-air hosts were entitled by the protections of the First Amendment to raise questions about why Epps had not been charged. The network also argued that hosts had issued protected opinions about Epps rather than factual assertions, an argument that was also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/03/21/judge-sounds-skeptical-some-fox-arguments-dominion-lawsuit/" target=_blank>made to defend against the defamation lawsuit</a> filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of the 2020 election.

In a statement, Fox also celebrated the recent dismissals of two other defamation lawsuits against the network or its employees. One was filed against Fox News host Jessica Tarlov by Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of Hunter Biden, over a comment she made about his legal defense being paid for by a pro-Donald Trump group. Another was filed by disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz, who argued that she had been smeared on the network and had her career damaged.

“Following the dismissals of the Jankowicz, Bobulinski, and now Epps cases, Fox News is pleased with these back-to-back decisions from federal courts preserving the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” the network said Wednesday afternoon.

Fox News still faces a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by voting technology company Smartmatic, which is expected to go to trial next year.

In her ruling Wednesday, District Court judge Jennifer L. Hall tossed the defamation case for “failure to state a claim.”

Michael Teter, a lawyer for Epps, declined to comment on the dismissal.

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Emory University, BA in political science and sociology

Jeremy Barr covers the media industry for The Washington Post.

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