After years of consternation among former President Donald Trump's supporters, the Justice Department has brought a charge against the man that urged Jan. 6 protesters to "go into the Capitol."
Ray Epps was charged Tuesday with a count of disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds, court records show.
There was no attorney listed in the court docket in the criminal case filed in Washington's federal court. The Associated Press' messages seeking comment from an attorney representing Epps in his lawsuit against Fox were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Epps was featured by Republicans and conservative media as having been an alleged face of the Jan. 6 protest, urging Trump speechgoers to storm the Capitol during the debate of election fraud allegations.
"On or about Jan. 6, 2021, within the District of Columbia, James Ray Epps, Sr., did knowingly, and with intent to impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of government business and official functions, engage in disorderly and disruptive conduct in and within such proximity to, a restricted building and grounds — that is, any posted, cordoned-off, and otherwise restricted area within the United States Capitol and its grounds, where the vice president was and would be temporarily visiting — when and so that such conduct did in fact impede and disrupt the orderly conduct of Government business and official functions, and attempted and conspired to do so," the brief one-paragraph court document filed Monday read.
The charges were filed and signed by U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves.