ATLANTA, GEORGIA: An extensive indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his aides describes some of the severe intimidation and harassment tactics unleashed on a former poll worker after she refused to fraudulently alter the 2020 election result in Trump’s favor.
The first of the 41 charges laid out in the indictment stated that some of the alleged "criminal enterprise" members falsely accused Ruby Freeman of committing election crimes.
“Members of the enterprise traveled from out of state to harass Freeman, intimidate her, and solicit her to falsely confess to election crimes that she did not commit,” stated the indictment, unsealed in Georgia on Monday, August 14.
The former Fulton County election worker previously claimed that she lived in fear after being wrongly branded as "a professional vote scammer and known political operative" who "stuffed the ballot boxes" with thousands of fictitious ballots.
Who Is Ruby Freeman?
Freeman is reportedly a 64-year-old grandmother, who volunteered with her daughter, Shaye Moss, to serve as a Fulton County election worker on Election Day at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, according to Huff Post.
Last year, Freeman and Moss provided testimony to the House committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, and Trump’s attempts to rig the election.
In an emotional testimony, Moss claimed that she and her mother received thousands of death threats and racist attacks in the weeks after the election.
At that time, Freeman revealed, the harassment she suffered was so ‘horrible’ that the FBI asked her to stay away from her home.
The threats allegedly began after Trump’s former attorney Rudolph Giuliani falsely alleged that video surveillance taken inside the arena captured election workers ordering Republicans to leave the room while “suitcases” of illegal ballots were secretly added to the mix of legal votes.
Giuliani specifically mentioned Freeman and Moss, accusing them of “passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine,” the new indictment stated. He claimed that these USB ports were used to “infiltrate the crooked Dominion voting machines.”
However, his allegations were proved wrong after federal and state investigators reviewed the footage. Officers noted that the “suitcases” that Giuliani described were boxes of legal ballots that had been in the room the entire day.
Last month, Giuliani also admitted in a court filing that he had made false accusations against Freeman and Moss.
Why was Ruby Freeman mentioned in Trump’s indictment?
Freeman and her daughter were both mentioned as victims in the indictment that saw Trump being charged with 13 counts of criminal conduct.
Prosecutors stated that after Giuliani’s accusation, Stephen Cliffgard Lee, another Trump aide, rallied people to put pressure on Freeman to recant her account of what happened at the State Farm Arena.
The indictment claims that Freeman called 911 on Lee three times after he personally visited her home on Dec. 15, 2020, telling her that he could help her, according to the indictment.
Freeman had another unwanted visitor at her home — Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for the hip-hop artist Kanye West. The indictment claims that Kutti, who described herself as a crisis manager, informed Freeman that she was in danger before adding that she was there to "help” her.
But Freeman refused to take her help and called 911 again. “They’re saying that I need help,” Freeman told a police dispatcher during Kutti’s visit, according to a police report obtained by Reuters.
During that visit, Kutti allegedly told Freeman that she had “48 hours” before people arrived at her home. When Freeman agreed to meet Kutti at a police station, Kutti once more assured her that she needed protection and that she would help her.
Freeman then revealed that Kutti connected her with a man on speakerphone who tried to get Freeman to implicate herself in committing voter fraud on Election Day.
Later, Kutti again threatened her, saying that she would go to jail if she refused to go along with the conspiracy plan.
Not just Lee or Kutti, but even Trump attempted to harass Freeman. The former US president mentioned the mother-daughter duo in his call on Jan. 2, 2021, when he spoke to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the conversation in which Trump requested that the Republican official “find” enough votes to flip the results of the state from blue to red.
At that time, Trump referred to Freeman as a “professional vote scammer and hustler.” He targeted her again this January on his Truth Social platform, writing, “What will the Great State of Georgia do with the Ruby Freeman MESS?”
Why was a GoFundMe campaign organized for Ruby Freeman?
A few days after the attacks, a GoFundMe was reportedly started by Freeman to begin a new life. “My life has been a wreck for the last year. I have lost so much. I've had several death threats, terroristic threats, people coming to my home, I no longer feel safe living here,” read the description of the fundraiser.
“I'm sure you have heard the news. It has been a horrible experience. All I wanted to do was support the county where I worked for over 20 years. I just need a new beginning and a fresh start. God plus one is a majority and that one is you. Any support you offer here will help cover my short-term financial needs,” the page continued.
The fundraising campaign was set up in December 2021 and has raised $299,125 of the $30,000 goal at the time of writing.
