'Nowhere I be in touch safe': Election officials recount threats

'Nowhere I exist inside be in touch safe': Election officials recount threats

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wandrea "Shaye" Moss testified Tuesday to lawmakers concerning how her actuality was upended when former President Donald Trump accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his allies falsely accused her accompanied by every one one other accompanied by her mother of pulling fraudulent ballots from a travelling bag inside Georgia.

The former Georgia elections employee recounted inside a wrenching appearance earlier to the House Jan. 6 committee how the defeated president latched onto surveillance footage from November 2020 to ask in remittance accompanied by her accompanied by every one one other accompanied by her mother, Ruby Freeman, of committing voter fraud — allegations that were fast debunked, yet spread widely across conservative media.

Moss, who is Black, said she received messages "wishing demise upon me. Telling me that I'll exist inside prison accompanied by my mother. And saying things like, 'Be pleased it's 2020 accompanied by every one one other accompanied by not 1920.'"

"A a large amount of them were racist," Moss said. "A a large amount of them were fair hateful."

The committee excessively played testimony from Freeman, who sat behind Moss inside the hearing room, showing support for her feminine child accompanied by every one one other accompanied by at one point passing over a carton of tissues while lawmakers heard concerning their shattering ordeal.

"There is nowhere I exist inside be in touch safe. Nowhere," Freeman told the committee inside the prerecorded video. "Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States mark you? The president of the United States is supposed to symbolize every one one American, not to mark one."

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"But he targeted me," she added.

The emotional testimony from mother accompanied by every one one other accompanied by feminine child was fair the latest try by the Jan. 6 panel to show how lies perpetrated by Trump accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his allies concerning a stolen election turned into real-life violence accompanied by every one one other accompanied by intimidation opposed to the caretakers of American democracy: condition accompanied by every one one other accompanied by local election officials accompanied by every one one other accompanied by workers.

Several of the people who bought into the election lies flat showed up at the place of residence of Moss' grandmother to build a citizen's arrest.

"I've never at some hour dated heard her or see her cry, at some hour dated inside my life," Moss testified. "She called me screaming at the top of her lungs ... saying people are at her home."

"I fair felt so helpless," she added.

The barrage of threats opposed to the place of set of two county workers mounted following Trump legal practitioner Rudy Giuliani played surveillance footage of them counting ballots inside a Georgia Senate committee hearing on Dec. 10, 2021. Giuliani said the footage showed the women "surreptitiously passing around USB ports while if they are vials of heroine or cocaine." What they were actually passing, Moss told the committee, was a ginger mint.

Giuliani accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Trump allies kept repeating the incorrect conspiracy theory that Moss accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Freeman, down accompanied by other election workers inside answer battleground states, were packing ballots into suitcases. The claim was disproven by some Georgia election officials, who investigated accompanied by every one one other accompanied by found the footage showed constant ballot containers used inside Fulton County.

But it was excessively late. Conservative networks exist fond of One America News Network seized on the incorrect claim accompanied by every one one other accompanied by it began to spread accompanied by the assist of Trump himself. Moss accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Freeman eventually filed a defamation legal deed opposed to the web accompanied by every one one other accompanied by Giuliani last December. The instance opposed to OAN has since been dismissed accompanied by a settlement.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Thursday's hearing, noted that Trump mentioned Freeman's name 18 times inside a call accompanied by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. At one point Trump called Freeman a "professional ballot scammer accompanied by every one one other accompanied by hustler."

"This has affected my actuality inside a greatest way. In every one one way. All since of lies. All for me doing my job. The same thing I've been doing forever," said Moss, who had been an election official for 10 years.

With so numerous threats swirling, the FBI urged Freeman to depart from her house ahead of Jan. 6 for safety reasons. She testified that she wasn't intelligent to return for place of set of two months accompanied by every one one other accompanied by felt homeless.

"The point is this: Donald Trump didn't protected from danger keeping concerning the threats of violence," Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the committee, said inside her opening remarks Tuesday. "He did not condemn them, he made no indeed indeed try to place an extremity to them; he went forward accompanied by his fake allegations anyway."

Raffensperger, Georgia's top election official, accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his deputy, Gabe Sterling, excessively testified concerning the relentless attacks they accompanied by every one one other accompanied by their colleagues faced while Trump falsely claimed widespread voter fraud inside Georgia.

Raffensperger accompanied by every one one other accompanied by his spouse were victims of organized harassment — commonly known while doxxing. His wife, he said, received "disgusting" text messages that were reproductive inside nature, accompanied by every one one other accompanied by supporters of the president's election claims broke into the place of residence of Raffensperger's daughter-in-law, where she was staying accompanied by her children.

Sterling recalled the little while inside December of 2020 that pushed him to speak out. It was a tweet concerning a staffer for Dominion voting machines — the focal point of other Trump-promoted conspiracies concerning voter fraud — that said "you committed treason. May deity have mercy on your soul." It included a slowly twisting GIF of a noose.

"And for lack of a better word, I lost it," Sterling told the committee. "I fair got irate."

That day Sterling gave an impassioned plea at a press conference pleading accompanied by Trump to condemn the threats opposed to election workers. "This has to stop," he said.

'Nowhere I exist inside be in touch safe': Election officials recount threats