A federal judge in Delaware dismissed Raymond Epps’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News on May 8, marking the second time U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Hall has thrown out the case. The ruling ends Epps’ second attempt to hold the network accountable for broadcasts that portrayed him as a government agent who helped stage-manage the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot on behalf of federal authorities. Epps, a former Marine and onetime Trump supporter, brought the lawsuit after Fox — most prominently through Tucker Carlson’s prime-time program — repeatedly promoted the theory that Epps was an undercover FBI operative or government plant deployed to instigate the insurrection and redirect blame away from Trump supporters.

The Justice Department’s sustained effort to criminally prosecute former FBI Director James Comey has now produced a measurable institutional cost: more than a half-dozen prosecutors have been demoted or pushed out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, others are weighing departures, and at least one major case has been disrupted. The campaign against Comey, spanning two separate indictments across nine months, has accomplished less legally than it has damaged the office pursuing it.