The far-right website The Gateway Pundit on Saturday admitted for the first time that there was no fraud during the vote count that lost Donald Trump the presidency in Atlanta in 2020, a significant concession from one of the most influential conservative sites. Elections play an important role in the spread of misinformation.
The site's first endorsement came days after the site said there was no evidence of fraud in Atlanta. Settled defamation suit by Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shay Moss, along with two local election workers, who falsely accused the site of wrongdoing. The terms of the settlement have not been made public, but the site appears to have removed all references to the two women.
“Georgia officials determined that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at State Farm Arena in November 2020,” said Jim Hoft, co-founder of the site. said in a statement published in Gateway Pundit on Saturday. “The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Vandrea 'Shay' Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at the State Farm Arena on election night. A legal dispute with both the news agency and the election staff has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and just settlement.
As Trump tried to play off his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, Gateway Pundit relentlessly promoted a misleading video that showed election workers fraudulently counting ballots on election night. Gateway Pundit was the first to identify the two women in the video, Freeman and Moss, and published dozens of articles falsely accusing them of wrongdoing.
Moss and Freeman spoke publicly about the severe harassment they faced. They received many death threats. People showed up at Freeman's house unannounced, and she feared they were going to kill her. Both women testified last year that they were still afraid to go out alone in public.
Hoft and his twin brother Joe, who is also a contributor to the site, have refused to back down from their false claims. They held a press conference on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, insisting the video showed wrongdoing.
Freeman and Moss previously settled a lawsuit with One America News Network, another far-right conservative outlet. It later aired a correction to its statement and noted that the two women were not involved in fraud.
A Washington DC jury also ordered Trump associate Rudy Giuliani to pay the two women nearly $150 million in damages last year. Giuliani has appealed the verdict and resorted to legal maneuvers to avoid paying. Attorneys for Freeman and Moss asked a federal judge in New York to grant control of his assets.
Gateway Pundit is facing a defamation suit from Eric Coomer, a former employee of Dominion Polling Systems.
