Former “Bob’s Burgers” actor Jay Johnston said he witnessed suspected federal informant Ray Epps encourage protesters to push toward the Capitol while they were being tear-gassed on January 6, 2021.
Johnston told Blaze News in an exclusive interview he was fired from his role in the hit animated series and “blacklisted” from Hollywood after he was convicted for his participation in the protests at the Capitol.
Having since received a full pardon from President Trump, the actor revealed that he witnessed Epps make strange demands of the crowd on January 6.
‘We did this in boot camp!’
“I was standing next to some guys that started arguing, some protesters,” Johnston recalled. “One guy was yelling at the police, and then another protester came up to him and started yelling at him, and then they were yelling back and forth at each other right in front of me,” he continued.
“I was thinking, ‘Why are these two protesters fighting? Why is this guy with a big mouth yelling at this guy?’ And then this other dude steps in, who turns out to be Ray Epps, who was pinpointed as a possible government employee.”
Epps was widely theorized to be a government or law enforcement insider after footage was released showing him encouraging crowds on January 5 to go into the Capitol building the following day.
Footage showed Epps saying, “We need to go into the Capitol! Into the Capitol!” and “We’re not here to fight, man. We’re here to storm the Capitol.”
“I believe he is [a government employee],” Johnston continued. “But [Epps] came in there and was like, ‘Oh, come on, guys,’ you know, telling them to shut up or stop fighting. Then, tear gas gets launched into the crowd. … You can’t even breathe. So I turned on my heels and started running away, and I could hear Ray Epps in the background say, ‘Breathe it in, you p***ies! We did this in boot camp! Come on, you p***ies!'”
Johnston explained that Epps stood “in the tear gas” and was “yelling at people.”
“I thought, ‘Well, he seems like an ex-Marine or something.’ I had no idea, but I thought that was kind of funny. And then later when he was pointed out as being an agitator, it made sense,” Johnston added.
Ray Epps, in the red Trump hat, center, gestures to a line of law enforcement officers, as people gather on the west front of the US Capitol. Photo by Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
When recalling events from that day, Johnston said he was “naive” to think that confidential informants or human sources would not be planted within the crowd.
“A lot of this comes in retrospect because I was not at that event with that filter of ‘who might be a government asset,’ ‘who might be an informant or a [confidential human source],'” Johnston remembered.
According to NBC News, Johnston pleaded guilty to a felony offense of obstructing officers during a civil disorder and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
Johnston told Blaze News his sentence was made through a plea deal, and he was scheduled to go to prison on February 6, 2025, but was issued a pardon by the president.
“Thank God for Trump. He stepped in,” Johnston said.
Johnston was noted as having assisted at least four others at the Capitol who had injuries from tear gas and helped them wash their eyes out. However, he was also accused of being part of a group that pinned a D.C. Metro Police officer against a door frame; the accusation led to his conviction.
Johnston denied the way his actions were characterized by media outlets.
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News, January 6, J6, Capitol protests, Bob’s burgers, Hollywood, Ray epps, Politics