Ruby Freeman Recounts Racist Threats From Trump Supporters

• Ruby Freeman, a Georgia poll worker who Rudy Giuliani defamed, testified at her trial Wednesday.
• She described the torrent of racist threats and harassment she received following his false claims.
• One person hoped she and her daughter would hang from the Capitol and said “I pray that I will be close enough to hear your necks snap.”

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Ruby Freeman feared for her life.

The grandmother, clothing boutique owner, and Fulton County election worker had been thrown into a vortex of false conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, which falsely claimed that he, and not now-President Joe Biden, won.

Rudy Giuliani, a personal lawyer for Trump and one of his loudest bullhorns, peddled a false claim that Freeman and her daughter Weandra “Shaye Moss” had manipulated ballots. While working on the ballot-counting process, he falsely said, they had pulled up “illegal” ballots stashed in a suitcase and passed around a USB drive that contributed to Biden winning in Georgia, a key state in his electoral victory.

It was a pure invention. But for Freeman, the consequences were very real.

At times holding back tears, Freeman testified Wednesday about the death threats and ceaseless harassment she suffered right after Giuliani began making his claims, on social media and on his podcast. Jurors in a Washington, D.C., federal courthouse are set to decide how much money Giuliani owes Freeman and Moss in damages for defaming them.

“I was terrorized. I was scared. I was scared people were coming to kill me,” Freeman told jurors. “They had my address. They had my phone number, my name.”

Jurors heard voicemails and read emails, Instagram and Facebook messages, and a letter representing some of the “hundreds” of racist threats Freeman and Moss, who are Black, received.

One person called from the same phone number three times in short succession, each time rattling off racist slurs and threats.

Another person sent a message through her company’s website, saying they hoped the federal government would hang Freeman and her daughter from the Capitol building dome.

“I pray that I will be close enough to hear your necks snap,” the person wrote.

Yet another message included a series of gruesome threats that concluded with “trash will be taken out in bags.”

“I took it as if they were going to cut me up, put me in trash bags, and take me into the street,” Freeman testified.

On December 4, the threats were ceaseless. Freeman’s phone kept ringing and alerting her of new, harassing voicemails even as she went to the police department to file a report.

The next day, the calls continued. Freeman called the police to inform them of continuing threats.

While she was on the phone, people pounded on her door. Jurors heard an audio recording of the 911 call where Freeman expressed fear about the “banging” on her front door, and concern that Trump’s supporters found her home.

“I was scared,” Freeman said. “I didn’t know if they were actually going to kill me.”

US District Judge Beryl Howell, who’s overseeing the case, has already ruled that Giuliani is liable for defaming Moss and Freeman. Jurors must decide only the damages.

Ashlee Humphries, a marketing professor at Northwestern University hired by the legal team representing Freeman and Moss, testified earlier on Wednesday that it could cost up to $47.5 million for a reputational repair campaign that would effectively reverse the damage.

Freeman testified that her life had turned upside-down as a result of Giuliani’s falsehoods. For a while, she lived in her car, not wanting to stay with friends or family members and put them at risk. She had to change the name of her business, which she had built up over the course of 30 years. She has lost business from longtime customers, struggles to advertise effectively without her reputed brand, and can’t network with vendors like she once did.

“I don’t have my name anymore. If you have nothing else, you have your name,” she said on the witness stand, her voice cracking. “My life is all messed up. It’s really messed up. All because of someone’s tweet and putting me on blast.”

Moss testified Tuesday about the threats and harassment. She said she feared for her life.

“How can someone with so much power go public and talk about things that he obviously has no clue about?” she asked, according to Politico. “It’s just obvious that it’s lies. It’s hurtful. It’s untrue, and it’s unfair.”

Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday after expected testimony from Giuliani.

In a brief press conference following Wednesday’s court proceedings, Giuliani said the threats had nothing to do with his conduct.

“I had nothing to do with those recordings,” he said. “It doesn’t refer to me. I don’t even know who those people are.”