DECEMBER 2 (Reuters) – Two Georgia poll workers targeted by former US President Donald Trump in an election-rigging conspiracy theory have sued a far-right website that circulated the false story, claiming it had been facing months of death threats and instigated harassment against them.
The defamation lawsuit against The Gateway Pandit was filed Thursday by Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a voter registration officer at the Fulton County Elections Bureau, and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who worked as a temp for the 2020 election. The women were profiled in a Reuters report on their ordeal published on Wednesday.
The lawsuit names the pundit, its founder and editor Jim Hoft, and his brother, writer Joe Hoft. They are said to have repeatedly published provably false claims that portrayed the women as “traitors” conspiring to “steal Georgia’s presidential election.”
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An attorney for Jim Hoft and The Gateway Pandit did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning. Joe Hoft did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, alleges that the pundit’s “lies” about Freeman and Moss “devastated” their reputations and “sparked a spate of intimidation, harassment and threats that forced them to change their phone numbers, to delete their online accounts and fear for their physical safety,” says the suit. Freeman went into hiding.
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The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, centers on false allegations first made by a volunteer Trump campaign attorney at a Georgia state legislature hearing on Dec. 3. Freeman and Moss worked in heavily Democratic Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, where a strong performance by Democrat Joe Biden helped him to a narrow victory in Georgia.
Trump, a Republican, and his deputies falsely claimed that Freeman and Moss pulled “suitcases” full of fake ballots for Biden and processed them late at night on Election Day, November 3, after most poll workers and poll watchers had left.
State officials, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, were quick and forceful in debunking the allegations, saying the “suitcases” were standard voting boxes and the votes were being properly counted under the supervision of an independent observer and a state investigator.
The Gateway Pandit covered the bogus allegations in several stories, including one that Freeman identified by name with the headline, “What’s up Ruby? Criminal agent filmed in Georgia pulling out ballot cases WILL BE IDENTIFIED.” The pundit identified Moss in another story.
The pundit stories continued throughout the summer, even as multiple audits and reviews confirmed the accuracy of Fulton County’s voting results.
“I could not have imagined the lies The Gateway Pandit would tell about me and urge people to harass and threaten violence against me and my family,” Freeman said in a statement from her attorneys.
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Reporting by Peter Eisler; Edited by Brian Thevenot
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