Two former Georgia poll workers who Trump officials have falsely accused of committing fraud to steal the 2020 election filed a lawsuit last week accusing Rudy Giuliani and One America News (OAN) of spreading lies about them.
Former Fulton County, Ga. poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, filed their lawsuit on Thursday at the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., court records show.
The complaint accuses Giuliani and OAN of “working together” to spread misinformation about Freeman and Moss while knowing the allegations against them were untrue.
“With knowledge that the claims against Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss were not based in fact, OAN has spent the past year accusing them of engaging in the illegal act of election fraud, along with other false allegations,” the complaint stated.
“As part of that campaign, OAN repeatedly turned to Giuliani, a member of former President Trump’s campaign team, and one of the central orchestrators of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged.”
Giuliani was the Trump official who argued there was an international conspiracy to keep Trump from winning re-election during a November 19, 2020 press conference, according to NBC News.
His claims have been debunked repeatedly and in June they compelled an appeals court judge in New York to revoke his license to practice law in the state.
State and federal judges have dismissed more than 50 lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies that challenged the 2020 election results, according to Reuters.
At least eight of those judges were previously appointed by Trump himself, according to the Washington Post.
The 80+ page complaint filed Thursday specifically referenced an edited security camera video of unidentified people, including Freeman and Moss, counting ballots after the 2020 election.
The suit said Trump campaign officials published the video on December 3, 2020. The former president and others have claimed the video shows Freeman and Moss rigging votes.
Their false message was amplified on OAN, the lawsuit pointed out. Other prominent cable news networks, including Fox News, have conceded Biden won the 2020 election fair and square. Some Fox News pundits, including Tucker Carlson, have continued to suggest the election was rigged.
“OAN, its hosts, and its staff leveraged Giuliani’s unsupported factual assertions and almost immediately published them to millions of its viewers and readers, subsequently adding Ms. Freeman’s and Ms. Moss’s names and leveling additional accusations of criminal fraud against them,” the lawsuit said.
Those claims have led to Freeman and Moss receiving death threats from supporters of the former president who believe his false allegations that the election was stolen.
“Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss have become the objects of vitriol, threats, and harassment,” the lawsuit said. “They found themselves in this unenviable position not based on anything they did, but instead because of a campaign of malicious lies designed to accuse them of interfering with a fair and impartial election, which is precisely what each of them swore an oath to protect.”
Officials working for OAN and Giuliani did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment from theGrio.
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