Post by LFC on Dec 3, 2021 0:23:49 GMT
Gateway Pundit is getting sued for its pushing of The Big Lie against specific people.
In the year since the Trump campaign and the conspiracy theory website The Gateway Pundit cast Wandrea Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman as key players in a false narrative of election fraud, Moss hasn’t been able to sleep much.
She’s gained 50 pounds. Her son failed multiple classes in school, as the phone he was using as an internet connection for his remote education was bombarded with racial slurs and threats. At least twice, strangers showed up to Moss’ grandmother’s home and attempted to push their way inside to perform a citizen’s arrest.
Things weren’t any better for Freeman, who was also bombarded with threats, unwanted pizza deliveries and threatening Christmas cards. On Jan. 6, a crowd surrounded Freeman’s home — but she wasn’t there, having taken the FBI’s advice to relocate.
That’s all according to a new defamation lawsuit that Moss and Freeman have filed in state court in St. Louis against Gateway Pundit, its owner Jim Hoft, and Jim’s twin brother and fellow Gateway Pundit writer Joe Hoft. The plaintiffs are being represented by lawyers with the group Protect Democracy.
The far-right website, a prime source for introducing fever swamp internet ramblings into the Trumpian mainstream, was a key driver in turning Moss and Freeman into household names, according to the suit — at least, in those households sucked into Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Specifically, the pair were featured in months of Gateway Pundit articles focused on selectively-edited surveillance video from the State Farm Arena, where Freeman, Moss and others were counting votes. The Trump campaign premiered the misleading footage during Dec. 3 testimony before the Georgia State Senate. Moss was, and still is, an employee for the Fulton County elections department, and Freeman was a temporary worker for the department during the 2020 election.
The obsessive coverage falsely accused them of stuffing illegal ballots through counting machines, a conspiracy theory crafted after an overflowing urinal briefly halted the tabulation process and prompted wild speculation. As a result, according to the suit, months of death threats and harassment followed.
“Defendants’ wrongful conduct is so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree that it is beyond all possible bounds of decency and is to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the lawsuit read. It sought a judgement forcing the Hofts and The Gateway Pundit to remove the allegedly defamatory material, compensatory damages “in an amount to be determined at trial,” and other relief.
She’s gained 50 pounds. Her son failed multiple classes in school, as the phone he was using as an internet connection for his remote education was bombarded with racial slurs and threats. At least twice, strangers showed up to Moss’ grandmother’s home and attempted to push their way inside to perform a citizen’s arrest.
Things weren’t any better for Freeman, who was also bombarded with threats, unwanted pizza deliveries and threatening Christmas cards. On Jan. 6, a crowd surrounded Freeman’s home — but she wasn’t there, having taken the FBI’s advice to relocate.
That’s all according to a new defamation lawsuit that Moss and Freeman have filed in state court in St. Louis against Gateway Pundit, its owner Jim Hoft, and Jim’s twin brother and fellow Gateway Pundit writer Joe Hoft. The plaintiffs are being represented by lawyers with the group Protect Democracy.
The far-right website, a prime source for introducing fever swamp internet ramblings into the Trumpian mainstream, was a key driver in turning Moss and Freeman into household names, according to the suit — at least, in those households sucked into Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
Specifically, the pair were featured in months of Gateway Pundit articles focused on selectively-edited surveillance video from the State Farm Arena, where Freeman, Moss and others were counting votes. The Trump campaign premiered the misleading footage during Dec. 3 testimony before the Georgia State Senate. Moss was, and still is, an employee for the Fulton County elections department, and Freeman was a temporary worker for the department during the 2020 election.
The obsessive coverage falsely accused them of stuffing illegal ballots through counting machines, a conspiracy theory crafted after an overflowing urinal briefly halted the tabulation process and prompted wild speculation. As a result, according to the suit, months of death threats and harassment followed.
“Defendants’ wrongful conduct is so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree that it is beyond all possible bounds of decency and is to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the lawsuit read. It sought a judgement forcing the Hofts and The Gateway Pundit to remove the allegedly defamatory material, compensatory damages “in an amount to be determined at trial,” and other relief.
