Hall Dismisses Epps’ Defamation Case Again — Raymond Epps Fox News Lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Hall dismissed the raymond epps lawsuit again on Friday, ending James Ray Epps Sr.’s second attempt to revive his amended defamation complaint. Hall said the amended filing fails to state a plausible claim and should be dismissed.
Hall had already granted Fox’s motion to dismiss the original complaint and allowed Epps to amend it. Her new ruling leaves that amended complaint out of the Delaware federal case after briefing, a hearing, and another filing stretched from early January 2025 through the spring and summer.
Hall’s Delaware ruling
The case centered on comments Tucker Carlson made about Epps and the Jan. 6 riots. Epps said portrayed him as an agent provocateur who helped stage-manage the Jan. 6 insurrection on behalf of the federal government.
Hall wrote, “I previously granted Fox's motion to dismiss the original Complaint and granted Plaintiff James Ray Epps, Sr., leave to amend.” She then wrote, “I conclude that the [amended complaint] fails to state a plausible claim and should be dismissed.”
Actual malice dispute
The court said the amended complaint contained new allegations Epps said were relevant to actual malice, the standard at the center of the case. Hall noted that many of those allegations were “conclusory statements and/or legal assertions that the Court need not credit when assessing whether the complaint states a plausible claim.”
argued that Epps had not identified any new factual allegations to change the earlier ruling on actual malice. In its filing, said, “Plaintiff fails to provide any basis to salvage the Amended Complaint” and “He does not identify any new factual allegations to alter the holding that he has failed to plead actual malice.”
January filings in Delaware
filed its motion to dismiss the amended complaint in early January 2025. Epps filed an answering brief, and Fox later replied in support of dismissal later that same month.
A hearing and one additional filing by Epps followed through the spring and summer of 2025. Friday’s ruling resolves the renewed complaint in Fox’s favor and leaves Epps without an amended defamation claim in the Delaware federal court case.
