The independent journalist hosting and producing the 14-part documentary series, “The Rest of the Story,” about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protests and the federal government's pursuit of the participants told RedState the much-vilified Ray Epps is a tragic figure.
“When it comes to people like Ray Epps, the thing is that these people, honestly, they're worthless to them. They're nothing,” said Lara Logan, the former “60 Minutes” and combat correspondent, who devoted three of the episodes to the most notorious J6 organizer.
The series is available free at the Truth in Media site and the TIM X profile.
“When they're done with Ray Epps, he's going to be just cast aside like trash,” she said.
“Look at him,” the Duban, South Africa native said.
“He's the guy on the ground telling people what to do. You think he's the one in charge? You really think he's the one who planned it all? Do you think he's the one who ordered it? No,” she said.
Epps is the star of dozens of J6 videos, where he is heard telling protesters to take their beef to the Capitol, where Congress was voting on the certification of the 2020 presidential election at the time.
Wherever there was trouble on January 6th, there was a decent chance one would find Ray Epps.
— Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) November 22, 2023
Why have the government and the media so vigorously defended a man who led so many efforts to storm the Capitol? pic.twitter.com/UwpRW0m25E
Congressmen and senators allied with President Donald J. Trump had plans that day to challenge the elector slates committed to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. from states where there were significant irregularities. When protesters crashed into the Capitol building, both chambers adjourned from their joint session to debate the challenge to the Arizona slate.
The chaos and violence between the Capitol police officers and the protesters led to the suspension of debate on the Arizona challenge, so quite literally, it was Trump’s right to participate in the legal and constitutional process of election certification that was violated.
Despite the merits of the Trump challenges to Arizona and the states, when the congressional proceedings resumed, the mainstream media’s insurrection narrative made those challenges politically untenable.
Nearly three years after J6, no one has ever made a connection between the leaders of the Capitol chaos and Trump, his campaign, or official staff. The fact remains Trump did not send a mob to disrupt his own plan to challenge the 2020 election.
Logan said if someone went to the Capitol grounds before noon that day, they could be forgiven for not realizing that in the next few hours, there would be the tumult described as an insurrection.
“You didn't have a sense that there was going to be an insurrection because there wasn't ever going to be an insurrection,” she said.
"There never was. It was orchestrated, and it was planned, and it required people on both sides," she said. "The police were set up, and the people were set up."
Logan: Project began with the death of Rosiland Boyland
One of the people doing the setting up was Epps, which is why this one man, who supported President Donald J. Trump, refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, and directed protesters up Capitol Hill, had avoided the persecution that has chased others from that day into prison, desperation, and suicide, she said.
Logan said she was drawn to the project when she first heard the story of Rosiland Boyland, the Kennesaw, Georgia, native who died after participation in the J6 protest.
“When I heard about and saw what happened to Rosiland, I felt responsible because, as a journalist, I do think it is my responsibility to make sure that events of great significance don't go ignored,” she said.
It bothered her that she had not heard about this one tragedy that symbolized so much of what happened at J6, Logan said.
“With Rosiland, I just thought, how can I not know her name? How can every American not know her name?” she asked.
“This woman left her home in Atlanta. She traveled halfway across the country. I don't think she'd ever been to Washington, D.C., before, but I'm not quite sure—but there were many people on Jan. 6 who'd never been to DC before,” she said.
“She went there on behalf of all the people, millions of people in this country who did not believe that Joe Biden got 81 million votes from his basement, and she was sent home in a container full of ashes,” she said. “That's just wrong.”
Logan devoted six episodes to the Boyland narrative, where she traced her steps to when she was killed on the Capitol steps.
“One of the things that I enjoyed the most was going home to her home and meeting some of her friends and family because I discovered that this woman who was painted, who they lied about,” she said.
Initially, the story was put out that Boyland died of a drug overdose, she said.
“This was a woman who overcame addiction,” she said. “For them to reach for that and do that to her, it was one of the dirtiest things, and then that made me angry, and I am Sicilian, so don’t make me angry.”
In the course of doing the Boyland story, Logan expanded the project to the individuals the Justice Department drove to suicide, such as Matthew Perna, the role of federal law enforcement at J6, and, of course, Ray Epps.
Logan: Epps was part of the J6 information operation
“The reason that Ray Epps is being so protected — and when I say protected — he is protected by the Jan. 6 committee, they come to his defense, the media comes to his defense,” she said.
“He's the only guy — they hate every other Trump supporter except Ray Epps. They hate every election denier except Ray Epps,” she said.
When Ray Epps urged people to trespass inside the Capitol, he knew it was a crime because he had an outstanding warrant for criminal trespass in Pennsylvania from 2015.
— Truth In Media (@Truth_InMedia) November 20, 2023
He wasn’t the only one removed from the FBI suspects list - so what really happened on J6? pic.twitter.com/oIbaklzqh5
Epps was part of the information offense operation executed to discredit and discourage Trump supporters, and people are wasting their time trying to understand an IO op as if it were a genuine demonstration.
“At the end of the day, we're all chasing our tails trying to find all these people on the ground that were part of this information operation,” she said.
“While we're all chasing our trails trying to figure out this and figure out that they're sitting back laughing at us,” she said.
“It was designed to cover up the election, but also terrorize anyone and dissuade people, keep people from the streets so that they would never, ever, ever dare to use the power that the people have,” winner of the National Press Club’s John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award said.
Logan said Epps was the ground-level man, but the people who called the shots were high above him.
“It's the level beyond that and the level beyond that,” she said. “They're the ones that run this country. They're the ones that get people killed when they get in their way. They're the ones that are really in control.”
It is good enough that people know Epps for now, she said.
“If you say to me: ‘Who is they?’ You know what? I'm going to turn around and say to you: ‘I don't know,’” she said.
“You name them and risk your life and let them come to your door because it's pretty obvious, right?” she said.
“Some of their names we know, and some of their names we don't know — but don't put it on me.”
