Fulton County election workers reach settlement with Conservative website over 2020 election claims

House January 6th Select Committee Holds Its Fourth Hearing WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 21: Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, former Georgia election worker, becomes emotional while testifying as her mother Ruby Freeman watches during the fourth hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on June 21, 2022 in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence related to the January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol for almost a year, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

By WSBTV

ATLANTA — Two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, have reached a settlement in their defamation lawsuit against The Gateway Pundit, a Missouri-based conservative website.

The site, along with its owner Jim Hoft and his brother Joe Hoft, had falsely accused the duo of fraud during the 2020 presidential election, according to a court filing earlier this week.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Freeman and Moss, has now been settled to the mutual satisfaction of both parties through what their lawyers described as a “fair and reasonable” agreement reached on Friday.

The settlement’s terms remain undisclosed, but the actions to implement the agreement should be completed by March 29. Both sides have requested the judge delay the case proceedings until they anticipate filing for dismissal. Lawyers for the Hofts have yet to comment on the settlement.

Many of the articles cited as defamatory in the lawsuit have since been removed from The Gateway Pundit’s website, according to The Associated Press. The company attempted to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, but a judge dismissed the filing as an effort to hinder the defamation lawsuit filed by Freeman and Moss.

Freeman and Moss, who worked as election workers in Fulton County, sued The Gateway Pundit due to its repeated false claims that the mother-and-daughter duo were involved in introducing illegal ballots during their work at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena in November 2020.

They have also pursued legal action against others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and One America News Network (OAN), for spreading falsehoods about the election being rigged, which led to death threats and considerable fear for their lives. Freeman and Moss have already won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani for his false claims of ballot fraud.

In 2022, OAN reached a settlement with Freeman and Moss and acknowledged through a video statement that state officials had found no widespread voter fraud committed by election workers at the State Farm Arena and cleared the pair of any misconduct.

Freeman and Moss were thrust into the public eye on December 3, 2020, after a member of Trump’s legal team presented a Georgia Senate committee with surveillance footage that allegedly depicted fraudulent activity during ballot counting. Although the claims were quickly debunked, Gateway Pundit continued to perpetuate the narrative.

Freeman, who was a temporary election worker in 2020, and Moss, who has been with the Fulton County elections department since 2012 and oversaw absentee ballots, were subject to an array of threats and harassments as a result of the false allegations. The FBI determined Freeman’s home to be unsafe by January 6, 2021, forcing her to relocate temporarily, and Moss’s teenage son received threatening messages connected to false allegations.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.