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Tag: 2020 election lies
Accountability Looms For Media Outfits That Spread Lies About 2020 Election

Accountability Looms For Media Outfits That Spread Lies About 2020 Election

A wave of litigation seeking accountability from media purveyors of smears and lies that falsely depicted the 2020 presidential election as "stolen" is percolating in courts around the country -- and heading toward trials or settlements in the near future.

These lawsuits augment the most high-profile investigations and prosecutions seeking accountability from Donald Trump and his White House and campaign aides for seeking to overturn the election’s result.

Indictments are anticipated from the probe conducted by Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, and possibly from the U.S. Department of Justice, whose investigation and prosecution of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is one of the largest in its history. (That said, some DOJ observers expect the first federal indictment of Trump to focus on his removal of government documents to his Florida home.)

While Trump faces 19 pending civil and criminal cases, according to JustSecurity.org, an online analytical forum, there are an additional 10 pending cases at various stages in state and federal courts that are targeting Trump allies in right-wing media and propaganda fronts.

The lawsuits allege the media-based provocateurs smeared election officials, local government workers, ordinary voters, and others by publishing false and defamatory claims about them, or additionally violated their civil rights by deploying illegal and violent tactics.

The suits stand apart from pending litigation by Dominion Voting Systems, one of the nation’s largest voting machinery makers, which is seeking $1.6 billion from Fox News for defaming its computer systems.

Many of these cases are being litigated with the help of ProtectDemocracy.org, “a nonpartisan nonprofit organization formed in late 2016 with an urgent and explicit mission: to prevent American democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government.”

Protect Democracy’s ongoing lawsuits include:

• A lawsuit against filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, True the Vote, Salem Media, and others involved in the 2020 election conspiracy film, 2000 Mules, for defamation and voter intimidation, on behalf of a Georgia man who was falsely accused of breaking the law in the movie and its related promotional materials.

• A defamation lawsuit against Rudolph Giuliani in federal court brought by two former election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, who testified before the House Select Committee on January 6. In late October, a judge denied Giuliani’s motion to dismiss the case.

• A lawsuit that led to a settlement with One America News Network, known as OAN, for the pro-Trump network’s publication of false reports about the 2020 election. A similar suit in a Missouri court against The Gateway Pundit, another pro-Trump right-wing website, is moving toward discovery and interviews of witnesses under oath.

• A defamation lawsuit against Project Veritas, James O’Keefe, and Richard Hopkins, for spreading the lie after the 2020 election that the postmaster in Erie, Pennsylvania, was illegally backdating ballots at postal facilities. A state court denied motions to dismiss the case.

• A voter intimidation lawsuit in Texas in response to an incident in 2020 where the “Texas Trump Train” – a caravan of Trump-supporting motor vehicles – tried to force a Joe Biden campaign bus off a highway at high speed. Discovery has been proceeding.

These suits are in addition to other litigation involving election denial. Last week in Arizona, in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters, a federal judge barred “unlawful voter intimidation” by Trump backers who were staking out ballot drop boxes, carrying guns, wearing body armor, and taking photos and videos of voters, some of whom they followed.

The media-centered lawsuits are part of a spectrum of litigation that seeks to unearth evidence about the broad national conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn 2020’s popular and Electoral College votes.

Notably, AmericanOversight.org, has filed public records requests for communications (e-mails, texts, and phone logs, for example) that have revealed the misconduct of Trump-allied activists, including the discovery of plans by state GOP officials and activists to forge fake Electoral College documents.

While it remains to be seen what will ensue from these lawsuits, they not only suggest that long-awaited legal accountability is looming, but underscore that spreading disinformation is a strategy deeply connected to more direct attempts to undermine election results and seize illegitimate power.

Michigan Attorney General: ‘Absolutely’ Enough Evidence To Charge Electoral Fraudsters

Michigan Attorney General: ‘Absolutely’ Enough Evidence To Charge Electoral Fraudsters

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says there is “absolutely” enough evidence to charge the 16 alleged fraudsters who are accused of attempting to sign and submit a fake, forged 2020 Electoral College “certificate” representing themselves as the legal electors, claiming falsely that Donald Trump won their state in the 2020 election.

Nessel has requested the federal government investigate and prosecute the group of 16 Republicans, but said in a Tuesday press conference if they won’t she will. Why?

“It’s clear to me that this was not independent rogue actors that were unknowingly doing the same thing as they had done in many other states,” Nessel said, as Michigan Advance reports. “From a jurisdictional standpoint, we think it’s important because it allows for the federal authorities to determine if there was a conspiracy that was a multi-state conspiracy.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has reported that the forged, fake documents submitted to the federal archives by seven states were almost identical, down to the text and font. (The states Republicans submitted forged documents for are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.)

“I feel confident that we have enough evidence to charge should we decide to pursue that,” Nessel also said. “I think that it’s a better idea for the feds to pursue this.”

Last week Nessel told Maddow, “I think that you’re talking about a conspiracy, really, to overthrow the United States government.”

“They have committed, ostensibly, the most significant case of election fraud, ever, in our state’s history.”


Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Trump Called Michigan GOP Leader On 2020 Election Audit, Co-Chair Says

Trump Called Michigan GOP Leader On 2020 Election Audit, Co-Chair Says

LANSING, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump called Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser about a potential audit of the state's 2020 election, the party's co-chairwoman, Meshawn Maddock, divulged at a GOP meeting over the weekend. Maddock made the comments at the 14th Congressional District Republican Committee's picnic in Grosse Pointe Park on Sunday, according to a recording obtained by The Detroit News. The remarks indicate high-level consideration of an election audit quietly continues within the party 10 months after the November vote, and the former president has gotten involv...