Far Right Conspiracy Site “Gateway Pundit” Sued by Georgia Election Workers
It started with Donald Trump; he targeted two specific election workers in Georgia in his “stop the steal” conspiracy theories. Next, sycophantic far right liar Jim Hoft, known for years as the Dumbest Man on the Internet, picked up Trump’s false claims and ran with them in multiple posts at his crappy blog.
And now, those two election workers have filed a defamation suit against Hoft and his creepy brother Joe, after they were bombarded with harassment and death threats caused by Gateway Pundit’s incitement.
The defamation suit against The Gateway Pundit was filed Thursday by Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, a voter registration officer in the Fulton County elections office, and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who was a temp worker for the 2020 election.
The lawsuit names the Pundit, its founder and editor Jim Hoft, and his brother, writer Joe Hoft. It alleges they repeatedly published demonstrably false claims that portrayed the women as “traitors” who conspired to “steal the presidential election in Georgia.”
The lawsuit, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court, alleges that the Pundit’s “lies” about Freeman and Moss “devastated” 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.” Freeman went into hiding.
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The Gateway Pundit covered the false allegations in multiple stories, including one that identified Freeman by name with the headline: “What’s Up, Ruby? Crooked Operative Filmed Pulling Out Suitcases of Ballots in Georgia IS IDENTIFIED.” The Pundit identified Moss in another story.
The Pundit stories continued through the summer, even as multiple audits and reviews confirmed the accuracy of Fulton County’s vote results.
“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,” Freeman said in a statement issued by her lawyers.
And this, of course, is not the first time Hoft and Gateway Pundit have been sued for publishing defamatory lies.