Georgia election workers settle defamation lawsuit against far-right website
Two Georgia election workers have reached a settlement in their defamation lawsuit against a Missouri-based, far-right website that falsely accused them of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, according to a court filing this week.
The lawsuit against the Gateway Pundit, its owner, Jim Hoft, and his brother Joe Hoft “has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and reasonable settlement,” lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss said Friday.
The filing in St. Louis City Circuit Court didn’t give any terms of the settlement, but said actions under the agreement are supposed to be completed by March 29. Both sides asked a judge to postpone the case until then, when they expect to request a dismissal. Lawyers for Hoft did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Nearly 70 articles cited as defamatory in the lawsuit were no longer available Friday on the Gateway Pundit website, the Associated Press found.
Freeman and Moss, who were Fulton County election workers, sued over the Gateway Pundit’s repeated false claims that the mother-and-daughter pair introduced suitcases of illegal ballots while working as ballot counters at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta in November 2020.
Freeman and Moss also sued others, including former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and One America News Network, claiming that both pushed Trump’s lies about the election being stolen, which led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.
Freeman and Moss are trying to collect a $148-million defamation judgment they won against Giuliani for his false ballot fraud claims.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell determined that Giuliani was liable for defamation and that he had engaged in a conspiracy to defame Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.
OAN settled with Freeman and Moss in 2022. It posted a video saying state officials “have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at the State Farm Arena in November 2020. The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night.”
Freeman and Moss were dragged into the spotlight on Dec. 3, 2020, when a representative from Trump’s legal team, Jacki Pick, showed a Georgia Senate committee surveillance video from the room where ballots were counted. Pick claimed that Republican observers were asked to leave and that once they were gone, election workers counted hidden, fraudulent ballots. No evidence of those claims has ever been found.
Pick didn’t name the election workers “but said ‘one of them had the name Ruby across her shirt somewhere,’” the lawsuit said. Later that day, the Gateway Pundit published Freeman’s full name, and in a subsequent story identified Moss, the lawsuit said.
The false allegation that “suitcases” of ballots were pulled from under tables away from the eyes of observers was almost immediately debunked. But the Gateway Pundit and the Hofts perpetuated the narrative, publishing and promoting stories after they were aware claims had been disproven, the lawsuit said.
In a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump pressed the Republican official to “find” votes for him and mentioned Freeman by name, calling her “a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler.”
President Trump was recorded pressuring the top Georgia election official, Brad Raffensperger, to alter votes and throw him the election. Raffensperger refused.
Freeman was a temporary election worker in 2020. Moss has worked for the Fulton County elections department since 2012 and supervised the absentee ballot operation.
As the allegations spread, Freeman received emails, text messages and threatening phone calls, and strangers showed up at her house, the lawsuit said. The FBI concluded on Jan. 6, 2021, that she wasn’t safe at home, and she relocated for two months. She abandoned her business selling clothing.
Moss’ teenage son was bombarded with threatening messages after harassers found her old phone number, which he was using, the lawsuit said. Because she previously lived with her grandmother, the lawsuit said, strangers showed up at her grandmother’s house at least twice and tried to enter to make a “citizen’s arrest.”
Amy writes for the Associated Press.
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