NBC’s Ben Collins reports:
Today, two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, sued Gateway Pundit, alleging the site instigated a “deluge of harassment and threats.”
What Freeman alleges happened to her in the last year is deeply disturbing and is worth reading.
Ruby Freeman is a retired 911 operator who ran a small business selling accessories.
With workers dropping out due to COVID, her daughter, Shaye Moss, asked her to help count ballots in Atlanta. Freeman signed on as a temp.
Weeks later, the FBI would tell her to flee her home.
The trouble started a month after the election.
On Dec. 3, a Trump campaign lawyer presented surveillance footage to Georgia’s State Senate, claiming someone who “had the name Ruby across her shirt somewhere” found a “suitcase” full of ballots from “underneath a table.”
This is pretty easy to explain: Election workers were told to pack up for the night, so they put the ballots away. Later in the night, they were told to restart the vote, and not wait until the morning.
Freeman started counting votes again.
But conspiracy theorists raced to identify the woman with the “suitcase.” They noticed she had a purse that said “LaRuby” on it. That’s Freeman’s business.
This was enough for Gateway Pundit, which led with a photo and this sentence:
“Her name is Ruby Freeman.”
Gateway Pundit titled their story on Freeman “What’s Up, Ruby? Crooked Operative Filmed Pulling Out Suitcases of Ballots in Georgia IS IDENTIFIED.”
The coverage went on for months, despite constant reality checks from Georgia’s Secretary of State and Bureau of Investigation.
This “investigation,” as Gateway Pundit called it, was quickly picked up by OAN.
Then-President Trump tweeted the video of OAN and Gateway Pundit’s Ruby Freeman investigation.
In the meantime, Freeman could no longer answer her phone, inundated with harassment.
Twice, strangers went to Freeman’s home and attempted to perform a “citizens’ arrest.” When Freeman wasn’t home, strangers would then harass her neighbors.
Around the holidays, Freeman was sent Christmas cards from harassers, the suit says.
“Ruby please report to the FBI and tell them you committed voter fraud. If not you will be sorry,” read one.
Let’s take a break here to remind you what Freeman did to deserve all of this:
She moved ballots that had been put away for the night from underneath a table to above a table, then counted them.