Tuesday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the Biden administration to be more transparent about its law enforcement efforts, particularly as it pertains to the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot and the role Ray Epps may have played in the lead-up to it.
Partial transcript as follows:
CRUZ: Well, there should have been, and if they were doing their jobs, that was what they would have said. But unfortunately, under Joe Biden, we have seen an incredibly partisan Department of Justice. And both the Department of Justice and the FBI have an arrogance that they are not accountable to anyone, that they can — they can stonewall.
And so, it should be very easy for the FBI to say no, no federal agents participated in violent crimes. No, no federal agents actively incited, encouraged others to commit violent crimes. If they were doing their jobs, those would be very easy questions to answer. They refuse to answer those, and there’s an element of arrogance.
But we got to watch this in light of the last five years where we know that the Department of Justice and the FBI was deeply politicized, that it went after Donald Trump with all of its might, right down to an assistant general counsel at the FBI fabricating a counterfeit document that was submitted to a federal court to try to target and take out President Trump.
And given that history of deep, deep politicization that has undermined the integrity of these noble institutions, I think both the FBI and the Department of Justice have an obligation to be candid and to come clean and in that same hearing, I asked that FBI official, I asked her about one individual in particular, Ray Epps.
There have been a lot of videos online of Ray Epps. Ray Epps was there on January 5, on January 6. There are videos of him urging the crowd, saying we should go to the Capitol, but not just go to the Capitol, we must go in the Capitol. In other words, urging them to break the law, and he keeps saying, “in the Capitol, in the Capitol.” And the entire crowd starts chanting, “Fed, fed, fed, fed.” It’s a very puzzling and disturbing video.
The next day on January 6, there’s video of him talking to one of the people at that rally whispering in his ear. And literally, five seconds later, that person is pushing barricades down. The natural inference being that this individual urged him to break the law. And so, I asked the FBI, is Mr. Epps an agent of the FBI, is an informant of the FBI? And she stonewalled, refused to answer. We know the FBI put him out on the list of people they wanted information about, and then magically, he disappeared.
There needs to be transparency. And the Biden administration needs to fess up, is this a politicized law enforcement operation that is targeting the enemies of the president, and did they actively encourage and solicit illegal conduct?
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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