Rep. Thomas Massie rips Merrick Garland over Jan. 6 informants: ‘You may have just perjured yourself’
Rep. Thomas Massie accused Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday of lying during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about his knowledge of federal law enforcement activities during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Massie (R-Ky.) previously tangled with Garland in October 2021 over the same issue, questioning whether undercover FBI agents were present at the storming of the Capitol.
At the time, Massie showed video footage of then-Arizona Oath Keepers president Ray Epps, who had urged protesters on the eve of the “Stop the Steal” rally “to go into the Capitol” — but had never been charged.
The attorney general had replied he would “not comment on pending investigations,” per Justice Department policy.
On Wednesday, Garland told Massie and other members of the House Judiciary Committee that he had no knowledge of federal involvement on Jan. 6 — despite an FBI official testifying in June that “a handful” of confidential human sources were there.
“That was your answer to a question to me two years ago, when I said how many agents or assets of the government were present on January 5 and January 6, and agitating in the crowd to go into the Capitol and how many went into the Capitol,” Massie recounted. “Can you answer that now?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Garland replied.
“You don’t know how many there were, or there were none?” Massie pressed.
“I don’t know the answer to either of those questions,” Garland said. “If there were any, I don’t know how many. I don’t know whether there are any.”
“I think you may have just perjured yourself — that you don’t know that there were any? You want to say that again?” Massie shot back.
“I have no personal knowledge of this matter,” Garland said. “I think what I said last time —”
“You’ve had two years to find out,” Massie interjected. “By the way, that was in reference to Ray Epps, and yesterday you indicted him. Isn’t that a wonderful coincidence? On a misdemeanor.
“Meanwhile, you’re sending grandmas to prison. You’re putting people away for 20 years for merely filming. Some people weren’t even there.”
“Yet you got the guy on video who’s saying, ‘Go into the Capitol.’ He’s directing people to the Capitol before the speeches,” Massie went on. “He’s at the site of the first breach. You’ve got all the goods on him. Ten videos, and it’s an indictment for a misdemeanor. The American public isn’t buying it.”
Washington, DC, US Attorney Matthew Graves charged Epps on Tuesday with one count of disrupting the certification of the 2020 election and entering a restricted area at the Capitol.
A defense attorney for Epps told The Post he expects his client to plead guilty to the charge, for which he could serve up to one year in federal prison.
“With respect to Mr. Epps, the FBI has said that he was not an employee,” Garland told Massie. Epps also testified to the House January 6 select committee last year that he never worked for the bureau.
According to a June 7 transcript released Wednesday by the House Judiciary Committee and first reported by The Post, the FBI couldn’t keep track of how many “confidential human sources” were on the ground during the Capitol riot.
Former FBI assistant director in charge Steven D’Antuono told committee staff that bureau headquarters had to eventually “poll” field offices to get an accurate count of the agents.
