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The declare: Freedom of Data requests present cellphone calls between Ray Epps and Nancy Pelosi’s workplace earlier than the Jan. 6 assault
For nearly a yr, Ray Epps, a Jan. 6 pro-Trump rallygoer, has been falsely branded by conservative tv hosts and Republican politicians as an undercover authorities agent who helped foment the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Epps was within the nation’s capital that day to protest the 2020 election outcomes, however video footage of Epps that weekend has been utilized by social media influencers to counsel he was working for the FBI, an accusation that has been debunked by the particular Home Committee investigating the assault.
However, some social media customers declare new proof reveals Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace and Epps have been involved earlier than the assault.
“BREAKING: Freedom of Data Act requests present a dozen cellphone calls between the cellphone of Ray Epps and the workplace of Speaker Nancy Pelosi within the week earlier than Jan. 6,” reads a Fb put up shared July 21.
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A lately deleted tweet with the identical declare amassed over 15,000 likes. Comparable posts have unfold extensively on Fb in teams with over 1,000 members.
However there isn’t any proof such exchanges between Pelosi’s workplace and Epps ever occurred.
Pelosi’s spokesperson mentioned the declare is fake. And constitutional legislation consultants instructed USA TODAY that the declare is deceptive as a result of Congress shouldn’t be topic to the Freedom of Data Act.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media customers who shared the declare for remark.
Pelosi’s workplace, Epps did not make any such calls
The declare is “full fiction,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesperson, instructed USA TODAY in an e-mail. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-In poor health., a member of the Home Jan. 6 Committee, also tweeted on July 22 that the declare was “completely false” and “actually made up.”
Not one of the posts offered any official documentation of the exchanges. As well as, USA TODAY didn’t discover any credible information reviews that Pelosi’s workplace and Epps exchanged cellphone calls earlier than the Jan. 6 assault.
The Freedom of Data Act is a statute that applies solely to the chief department of the federal authorities and federal companies, Kel McClanahan, government director of the Nationwide Safety Counselors legislation agency, instructed USA TODAY in an emailed assertion. It does “not apply to Congress, the courts, state and native governments, or non-public entities.”
The act permits anybody to acquire federal company information apart from these “shielded from disclosure” beneath sure exemptions resembling “info involving issues of non-public privateness” or “inter-agency or intra-agency communications which might be protected by authorized privileges,” in accordance with the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
Whereas anybody can ask members of Congress for copies of supplies, they cannot “fairly count on” something as members can deny these requests, Tuan Samahon, a constitutional legislation skilled at Villanova College, instructed USA TODAY in an e-mail. If somebody tried to sue Congress for information beneath the act, a “courtroom would dismiss it for failure to state a declare,” he mentioned.
Truth test: Arrests have been made inside Capitol constructing on Jan. 6, and after
Samahon added that if government department information occurred to have congressional cellphone logs of their possession, then it’s attainable a Freedom of Data Act request might get hold of these previously congressional information. However assuming the cellphone logs claimed within the put up included the names of Epps and Pelosi and the information have been within the possession of the chief department, he mentioned the chief department would seemingly assert numerous exemptions to redact the names of the callers or their cellphone numbers.
“Thus, I’d be suspicious of the declare with out additional proof explaining how the logs got here to be within the possession of the chief department and why exempt materials wasn’t redacted,” Samahon mentioned.
Truth test:Supreme Courtroom didn’t, can’t rule to question Nancy Pelosi
As USA TODAY has reported, Epps has been falsely accused of being a “U.S. authorities informant who incited rioting on the Capitol.”
USA TODAY has debunked several claims regarding the Jan. 6 attack, including baseless assertions that no one was arrested inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and that the FBI organized the riot.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Freedom of Information requests show phone calls between Ray Epps and Nancy Pelosi’s office before the Jan. 6 attack. Pelosi’s spokesperson said no such exchange happened. Experts said that because Congress is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, it is unlikely phone records between Epps and Pelosi’s office could be obtained that way.
Our fact-check sources:
- Associated Press, July 25, Post spreads baseless claim about Jan. 6 conversations
- Kel McClanahan, July 27, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Adam Marshall, July 27, Phone interview with USA TODAY
- Drew Hammill, July 27, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Tuan Samahon, July 27, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- Adam Kinzinger, July 22, Tweet
- Congressional Analysis Service, Aug. 24, 2020, The Freedom of Data Act (FOIA): A Authorized Overview
- Division of Well being and Human Providers, Sept. 17, 2015, What info shouldn’t be obtainable beneath the FOIA?
- USA TODAY, July 25, Truth test: Arrests have been made inside Capitol constructing on Jan. 6, and after
- USA TODAY, Dec. 16, 2021, Truth test: Trump repeats false declare that Pelosi rejected request for Nationwide Guard forward of Jan. 6
- USA TODAY, July 22, Stress campaigns, predictable violence: What we realized from all eight Jan. 6 hearings
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Our fact-check work is supported partially by a grant from Fb.
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