Within the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, Republicans together with then–President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, certainly one of Trump’s prime attorneys on the time, claimed that video footage from State Farm Area in Atlanta confirmed that one thing shady occurred throughout vote counting in Georgia.
That video footage supposedly confirmed two election staff pulling ballots from a “suitcase” and coming into them into official counts after hours, in accordance with reviews in right-wing media like One America Information Community. Giuliani testified to a Georgia legislative committee that ballot staff overseeing the counting of ballots at State Farm Area in Atlanta had engaged in blatant fraud.
These claims had been explosive—however completely improper.
The allegations involving these two election staff—Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Moss—had been “false and unsubstantiated,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, introduced Tuesday, as his workplace formally closed a two-year probe into the incident. The investigation had launched on the behest of Georgia state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R–East Cobb) and included the FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The ultimate report contains particulars of interviews with Freeman, Moss, and different staff current through the poll counting at State Farm Area on the night time of the 2020 election. These interviewed offered “a constant account” of the ballot-counting course of, and matched what investigators noticed on the video footage. As for that supposedly damning video footage, “There was no proof of any kind of fraud as alleged,” the report concludes, and there was “no proof was offered to indicate that Freeman or Moss deviated from” the established course of for storing bins of legit ballots.
Moreover, the FBI interviewed the creator of an Instagram account that surfaced in December 2020 and presupposed to belong to Freeman. In posts to the account, the consumer (whose title was redacted within the ultimate report) claimed to have participated in poll fraud, however later admitted to the FBI that the content material was pretend.
Freeman and Moss reached an undisclosed settlement with OAN final 12 months after suing the community for defamation associated to its protection of the election. Within the lawsuit, the 2 claimed to have been subjected to intense harassment each on-line and in the true world.
Tuesday’s report additionally particulars the extent to which state investigators double-checked the election outcomes. Audits performed after Election Day “didn’t establish any points or discrepancies to counsel pretend or fraudulent ballots had been scanned and counted within the 2020 Basic Election outcomes,” and a subsequent recount requested by Trump’s marketing campaign “additionally didn’t establish any discrepancies to counsel fraudulent ballots had been launched and counted within the tabulation course of.”
“We’re glad the state election board lastly put this subject to relaxation. False claims and knowingly false allegations made towards these election staff have executed super hurt,” Raffensperger stated in an announcement. “Election staff deserve our reward for being on the entrance traces.”
Trump, in the meantime, continues to push the declare that the election was stolen. In an interview on Monday with Fox Information’ Brett Baier, Trump stated he “received in 2020 by loads” and claimed that “they had been counting ballots, not the authenticity of the poll. The ballots had been pretend ballots, this was a really rigged election.”
That is all the time been a unprecedented declare that ought to require extraordinary proof to be believed. To this point, no agency proof of a conspiracy to steal the election has stood as much as scrutiny. On Tuesday, one other piece of what little stays of Trump and Giuliani’s wild claims was conclusively debunked.
