The harassment received by two Black women, a mother and her adult daughter, in Georgia after they were targeted by 2020 election conspiracies may become a central part of Fulton County’s case against Donald Trump and members of his 2020 team.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Wednesday that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have testified at length about the death threats and racist harassment they experienced in the wake of their participation as poll workers in the 2020 election to a grand jury empanelled by District Attorney Fani Willis to hear her agency’s evidence against the Trump campaign and the former president himself.
Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s attorney, at one point directly accused the two of being involved in stealing ballots during a hearing called by a Georgia Senate subcommittee — part of his failed efforts to prove fraud had occurred in the election.
“Look at them scurrying around with the ballots. Nobody in the room. Hiding around. They look like they’re passing out dope, not just ballots. It is quite clear they’re stealing votes,” he said.
A number of individuals who were accused of participating in the harassment are expected to be charged along with any indictments handed down to Mr Trump or his legal team, according to the newspaper.
Wandrea ‘Shaye’ Moss is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman, right, at a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan 6 attack, in June 2022— (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
”We hope to see accountability for those who led and profited from the smear campaign against Ruby and Shaye,” an attorney representing the two women said in a statement to the Journal-Constitution.
Some of that accountability has admittedly already been doled out. One America News settled with the two women after being hit with a Dominion Voting Systems-esque lawsuit, and two other suits against Mr Giuliani and the right-wing gossip blog Gateway Pundit are pending.
Jurors who spoke with the newspaper did not say specifically which figures connected to the investigation would actually end up being recommended for charges. But one person who seems to at least have caught intense scrutiny from the grand jury was Trevian Kutti, a publicist and self-described “capitalist media manipulator” who previously worked for Kanye West and R Kelly.
According to the grand jury’s summons, Ms Kutti was involved in an effort to pressure Ms Freeman to say that she was involved in election fraud during a three-person phone call that included Ms Kutti, Ms Freeman, and Harrison Floyd, the head of Black Voices for Trump and a former state lawmaker. Ms Floyd was also summoned by the grand jury, according to the AJC, but like Ms Kutti did not offer testimony.
Indictments in the case are expected within the next week or two. The former president is already facing skyrocketing legal costs as he battles 78 separate criminal charges across two jurisdictions and three criminal cases, a staggering burden for a politician who is currently leading his party’s presidential primary contest.
Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing in any of the legal investigations against him.
