Former President Donald Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, to fuel conspiracy theories aimed at a Georgia election worker.
Around midnight on 2 January, Mr Trump fired off a message on Truth Social claiming there were "contradictions" in Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman’s testimony to the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot.
"Wow! Has anyone seen the Ruby Freeman ‘contradictions’ of her sworn testimony?" He wrote. "Now this is ‘BIG STUFF.’ Look what was captured by Cobb County police body cameras on 4 January, 2021. … Now it gets really bad."
Mr Trump then issued a second and third post to the platform, asserting that the 2020 election was "ALL A FRAUD" and accusing Ms Freeman of election crimes.
“What will the Great State of Georgia do with the Ruby Freeman MESS?” he asked in the third post, claiming that he is doing battle with "the evils and treachery of the Radical Left monsters who want to see America die."
Ms Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss — both Black women — became the subject of conservative election denier’s conspiracy theories shortly after the 2020 election, according to MSNBC. They claim the two — who had taken temp jobs counting ballots — were personally responsible for adding fake ballots for Joe Biden into the state’s counting systems.
Republican conspiracy theorists claim that a video of the women doing their jobs proves that they were committing election crimes, citing an unseen “suitcase” allegedly filled with fake ballots. The video does not appear to show any crime being committed nor does it show a suitcase, but instead a common box used to transport ballots.
The outlet reports that the FBI advised Ms Freeman to flee her home, shutter her business, and seek shelter at an undisclosed location to protect herself from conspiratorial Trump loyalists.
Ms Freeman told the House Select Committee that "there is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere."
“Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States to target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American. Not to target one,” Ms Freeman said, according to NBC News. “He targeted me. A proud American citizen who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of a pandemic.”
According to a report from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Mr Trump was even told by his own Justice Department that the claims regarding Ms Freeman and her daughter were false.
Former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue reportedly told Mr Trump directly that the allegations had been reviewed and were found baseless.
“No, sir, there is no suitcase. You can watch that video over and over," he reportedly told the former president. "There is no suitcase. There is a wheeled bin where they carried the ballots. And that’s just how they moved ballots around that facility. There’s nothing suspicious about that at all.”
That report was clearly not enough to convince Mr Trump, who has continued to claim despite all evidence to the contrary that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
