The editor of a website that singled out two Georgia election workers and baselessly accused them of manipulating ballots in the 2020 election has now admitted the entire story was false.
Jim Hoft – founder of far-right website Gateway Pundit — posted a mea culpa to his site in which he admitted that there was no truth to his claim that Fulton County, Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss did anything illegal in the election, the Guardian reported Saturday.
This is despite Gateway Pundit first amplifying the claim, which eventually was picked up by former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
“Georgia officials concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud by election workers who counted ballots at the State Farm Arena in November 2020,” the site’s co-founder, Jim Hoft, said in a statement posted on Gateway Pundit on Saturday.
“The results of this investigation indicate that Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct while working at State Farm Arena on election night. A legal matter with this news organization and the two election workers has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties through a fair and reasonable settlement.”
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Both Freeman and Moss sued Giuliani and Gateway Pundit for defamation over false claims about election fraud.
The Associated Press recently reported that 70 Gateway Pundit articles cited as defamatory in Freeman and Moss' suit were scrubbed from the site after the news of their confidential settlement was announced.
The suit against Hoft's website alleged that Gateway Pundit's lies about the two women "have not only devastated their personal and professional reputations but 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."
Hoft tried previously to file for bankruptcy to get out of paying damages, but his petition was dismissed by a judge in July, who ruled that the company was financially solvent.
