Friday, December 3, 2021
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Georgia election workers sue right-wing site for defamation

The site repeatedly published and promoted a debunked conspiracy accusing the two workers of fraud during ballot counting on election night in Atlanta, the lawsuit claims.

Democratic and Republican representatives review absentee ballots at the Fulton County election center in Atlanta on Nov. 4, 2020. (John Bazemore/AP)

(CN) — Two Atlanta election workers sued the right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit for defamation and emotional distress Thursday, claiming they suffered harassment and threats after the site knowingly published false stories claiming they engaged in ballot fraud on election night in the 2020 presidential race.

Multiple stories published by the site promoted the conspiracy theory that temporary election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss tried to rig the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia for President Joe Biden by counting ballots hidden inside secret “suitcases” and running them through voting machines multiple times.

Filed in St. Louis, where the website is headquartered, the 70-page complaint alleges that site owner James Hoft and his brother Joe Hoft, a contributor to the site, “endlessly repeated” the accusations that “nobody did more to steal the election for Joe Biden than this mother-daughter combo.”

The plaintiffs say The Gateway Pundit drew inspiration for its false claims from former President Donald Trump's campaign attorneys, who alleged last year that security footage showed workers counting illegal ballots.

During Dec. 3 testimony before the Georgia Senate, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jacki Pick played clips from the footage. Pick falsely stated that Republican observers had been asked to leave the arena and that, once they were gone, election workers produced and counted 18,000 hidden, fraudulent ballots from a suitcase.

Georgia election officials found no evidence to support those claims and debunked them within 24 hours, even posting the video on the secretary of state’s website. The "suitcases" were actually absentee ballot carriers.

Still, Pick’s claim was widely disseminated throughout right-wing media outlets. The Gateway Pundit was the first to publish Freeman’s full name and identify her as one of the election workers in the video. Moss was identified in a later story, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say the website was aware that the allegations had been disproved by officials and fact-checking organizations but continued to promote the conspiracy.

The Gateway Pundit published stories with headlines like “WHERE’S BILL BARR? — We Got Your Voter Fraud AG Barr — It’s On Video and They Attempted to Steal Georgia with It! — HOW ABOUT A FEW ARRESTS?” and “What’s Up, Ruby?… BREAKING: Crooked Operative Filmed Pulling Out Suitcases of Ballots in Georgia IS IDENTIFIED.”

The allegations were repeated by Trump himself during a Jan. 2 phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president pressured Raffensperger to “find” votes for him and said Freeman’s name 18 times.

Trump called Freeman a “vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler.” The former president said, “We’re so far ahead of these numbers, even the phony ballots of Ruby Freeman – known scammer.”

According to the plaintiffs, the website never responded to a letter demanding they retract and take down the stories.

On Thursday, The Gateway Pundit published a story written by Jim Hoft announcing that it was being sued and repeating the false claim that Freeman “was caught on video” feeding ballots through voting machines multiple times.

The story concluded with a message asking readers for donations to help the website “defend ourselves from this latest assault.”

Freeman and Moss say the lies spread about them have damaged their reputations and “instigated a deluge of intimidation, harassment, and threats that has forced them to change their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and fear for their physical safety.”

The two women, who are Black, say they have been “vilified” on social media and subjected to violent, racist threats and harassment. Freeman received more than 400 emails and dozens of threatening text messages and phone calls, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement Thursday, Freeman said, “I couldn’t have imagined the lies that The Gateway Pundit would tell about me, pushing people to harass me and my family and to threaten us with violence. I want the defendants to know that my daughter and I are real people who deserve justice, and I never want them to do this to anyone else.”

Under advisement from the FBI, Freeman fled her home and did not return for two months. The home was surrounded by a crowd of people on Jan. 6, the day of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the complaint states.

The complaint also says that strangers showed up at Moss’s grandmother’s home and tried to push inside to make a citizen’s arrest.

“As a result of defendants’ ongoing campaign, both women are afraid to live normal lives. Ms. Freeman is fearful when she hears her name called in public; Ms. Moss now fears risking even a visit to the grocery store and must get her groceries delivered instead,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs are seeking nominal, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees and a court order requiring the defendants to remove the false statements.

The Gateway Pundit did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

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