Two women running for Georgia’s 2020 election are suing far-right conspiracy Gateway Pundit for defamation, alleging that the site and its owners knowingly published false stories about them that triggered a relentless crusade of harassment and threats.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in St. Louis, the lies about Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, “not only devastated her non-public and professional reputation, but triggered an avalanche of intimidation, harassment and threats. this forced them to replace their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and worry about their physical safety. “
The harassment was so severe that at one point, Freeman had to leave his home for two months on the recommendation of the FBI, according to the lawsuit.
“Lies like the ones The Gateway Pundit knowingly told about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss cannot be separated from the devastation they leave, neither for targeted Americans nor for our democracy itself,” Brittany Williams, an attorney with the nonprofit Protect Democracy, which represents women, said in a statement.
Freeman and Moss are represented through Protect Democracy; the law of Bose Miller, Dowd Bennett and Kastorf Law; and the Access to Media and Information Freedom Clinic at Yale Law School.
Gateway Pundit, founded through James Hoft in 2004. Hoft’s double brother, Joseph, is a regular contributor to the site. Both men are named as defendants in the trial. James Hoft did not respond without delay to a request for comment Thursday.
At their trial, Freeman and Moss do not consider former President Donald Trump or his crusade to be charged. But they say Hofts and Gateway Pundit “apparently took inspiration” from a misleading video presented through Trump’s volunteer crusade lawyer Jacki L. Choose a hearing on December 3, 2020 in Georgia.
During the hearing, Pick claimed the video showed several election officials actively filling ballots in “suitcases” hidden under a table covered in black cloth. Pick didn’t call the workers, saying “one of them had the so-called Ruby somewhere on his shirt. “
A one-minute clip of the video uploaded to Trump’s private YouTube account, and Trump himself repeated the false accusation of fraud.
In his now-notorious Jan. 2 phone call to pressure Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to cancel his defeat, Trump spoke about Freeman by name, calling her “a professional voter scammer” and “scammer” and referring to Ruthrough Freeman’s “fake ballots. “thief,” the lawsuit states.
In reality, the surveillance video showed no irregularities, illegal habits or evidence of embezzlement. Election officials have known so-called “suitcases” as the popular boxes used in Fulton County to send and buy polls. any act of concealment or obfuscation of electoral papers or electoral materials.
At a lengthy press conference in January, Gabriel Sterling, a senior Republican election official in Georgia, denied point by point the false claim that the video evidences voter fraud.
However, the claim was repeated through the Trump crusade and Gateway Pundit, which published an article hours after the Dec. 3 hearing in which it first named Freeman and his company. name.
They continued to publish articles defaming women “long after the day of the investiture” and as recently as August, according to the lawsuit.
For years, Gateway Pundit promoted a dizzying array of lies, adding the conspiracy theory that academics who survived the Parkland, Florida, school shooting were paid “crisis actors”; the unfounded claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States; and stories that incorrectly identify the shooter in the 2017 Las Vegas concert mass shooting and the driving force that killed a woman protesting a neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville.
In the latter case, the misnamed Michigan guy and his father filed a defamation lawsuit, mentioning James Hoft as one of the defendants.
During the 2016 campaign, Gateway Pundit was among the top media resources shared on Twitter and Facebook among Trump supporters, far more than mainstream media, according to an examination through Harvard law professor and web specialist Yochai Benkler.
In the wake of the 2020 campaign, dozens of articles were published selling Trump’s false claim that the election had been “stolen. “There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in that year’s presidential race.
The complaint filed Thursday highlights the “violent and racist threats and harassment of all kinds” that Freeman and Moss suffered as a result of the website’s alleged actions. Freeman and Moss are black.
As the false stories spread, Freeman became dosed and forced to close his online business. He won at least 420 emails and 75 text messages, adding a warning: “We know where you live, we’re going to pick you up. Foreigners camped in his space and knocked on his door; he sent him deliveries of pizzas that he had never ordered; hung up his Christmas cards with threatening and misogynistic messages; and even made it to his grandmother’s space at least twice and tried to make his inner way to make a “citizen arrest. “”.
The lawsuit also states that on Jan. 6, the day a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to block congressional certification of Biden’s victory, a crowd of foreigners “surrounded Ms. Freeman’s home, some on foot, others in vehicles. . , others provided with a megaphone.
“Fortunately, Ms. Freeman had followed the FBI’s recommendation and temporarily moved out of her home. He couldn’t come back for two months,” the trial said. Since returning home, Ms. Freeman has had to purchase 11 cameras and 3 motion sensors in an effort to protect her own home. “
Because of the threats and harassment provoked through The Stories of Gateway Pundit, “they are afraid to lead a life in general. “
“Ms. Freeman is afraid when she hears your call in public; Ms. Moss is now afraid to risk even making a stop at the grocery store and will instead have to have the groceries delivered to her,” the lawsuit says.
Williams, the lawyer for Protect Democracy, said lies like those promoted through Gateway Pundit “are now polluting the data ecoformula in America and threatening the foundations of our governance formula. “
“And they are especially pernicious when they aim to intimidate nonpartisan election officials who are imperative to the holding of free and fair elections,” he said in a statement. “Those who intentionally publicize those lies will have to be and will be held accountable. “
Paul Farhi, Adriana Usero, Amy Gardner and Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post contributed to this report.
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