Who is Ruby Freeman and why is there a picture of Kanye West on this post? First of all Ruby Freeman, in her 60’s was a temporary election worker in Fulton County Georgia. Late on election night, November 3, 2020, she was one of the workers counting ballots. The workers were told to go home for the night. They packed the uncounted ballots in suitcases and were ready to close up for the night. They were subsequently told that they could not leave and, so, they dragged the suitcases back, unpacked and started counting ballots again. All this is on tape.

Allies of Donald Trump edited the video and began showing, on social media, that part of the video where the suitcases were dragged in and ballots unpacked. So began the conspiracy theory that Ruby Freeman, pictured on the video, had dragged in false ballots and resulted in Biden fraudulently winning the state. Georgia election officials, dismissed the suitcase fraud claims, quite soon after. But, the damage had been done. An intense smear campaign followed.

Her Instagram account was hijacked and social media users began sharing an alledged Instagram account confession by Ruby. It was reported, in December, that Ruby had been arrested by the FBI for her role in the alleged fraud. This reporting went viral. It was totally false. Media outlets such as the far right wing tv outlet One America News (OAN) carried the suitcase fraud story repetitively. Rudy Giuliani, a frequent guest on OAN, compared her actions to those of a drug dealer. Here is the link with Kanye. Kanye was a supporter of Trump, at the time. His publicist, Trevian Kutti, went to Freeman’s home in December. Kutti said she wanted to help Ruby. She pressed Ruby to admit to the fraud, saying that Ruby was a loose end, and, if she didn’t admit to the fraud (paraphrasing) bad things would happen to her and her family. Trump, commenting on the OAN coverage, identified Ruby by name and claimed that Ruby, herself, had added 30,000 to 40,000 fraudulent ballots to the count. The then president of the country alleged, to the country, that this election worker was responsible for Trump losing Georgia. Ruby did receive death threats.

Ruby struck back. She sued OAN , OAN executives, other media outlets, as well as, Rudy Giuliani. Ruby has just reached a monetary settlement with OAN that satisfied both Ruby and OAN. The amount of the settlement remains confidential. As one of the conditions, OAN had to go on air, and admit that the Georgia election fraud claims were without merit. They did this in a one time 30 second spot. Just one time. A one time spot is not going go undo the damage done. The edited video will keep on being shown. This is what Trump’s America has come to. Trump might not currently be in power but his dark shadow continues to loom large.