Trump and Giuliani Target Fulton County Election Workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss (2020–2021)

What happened

On election night 2020, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss were among the Fulton County workers counting absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. On 3 December a member of Trump's legal team showed Georgia senators an excerpt of surveillance video and claimed that, after Republican observers were sent home, workers pulled "suitcases" of hidden ballots from under a table (AP; indictment ¶21). Georgia's Secretary of State's office said the next day that investigators had watched the full footage and that it showed "normal ballot processing" (indictment ¶23). Later investigations found that workers had begun packing up at about 10.30 p.m., were told by the county elections director to keep counting, and took ballots out of secure containers to resume. Observers had not been told counting was over (The Guardian, summarising the State Election Board report).

On 10 December Giuliani played the video to a Georgia House committee, named the two workers, and accused them of "quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine." He said their "places of work, their homes, should have been searched." The federal indictment states: "Thereafter, the two election workers received numerous death threats" (¶26). Moss later testified that the "USB" was a ginger mint (NPR). On 15 December Justice Department officials told Trump directly that the activity on the tape was "benign" (¶27).

On 2 January 2021 Trump called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He named Freeman 18 times by NPR's count ("almost twenty times" in the indictment) and called her "a professional vote scammer and hustler." He also said: "I'll take on anybody you want with regard to Ruby Freeman" (NPR; AP; indictment ¶31(a)). Raffensperger replied that Giuliani's people had "sliced and diced that video and took it out of context."

The harm

Freeman received threatening emails, texts and phone calls, and strangers came to her house. The FBI concluded on 6 January 2021 that she was not safe at home. She relocated for two months and abandoned her clothing business (AP, citing the women's lawsuit). Moss told the January 6 Committee that her Facebook messages were full of threats, "wishing death upon me", many of them racist, including "Be glad it's 2020 and not 1920." Someone came to her grandmother's home claiming to make a citizen's arrest. She changed her appearance and left her job (NPR). Freeman told the committee: "There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?" (The Guardian).

Findings and outcome

• The Georgia State Election Board closed its investigation in June 2023, finding "All allegations made against Freeman and Moss were unsubstantiated and found to have no merit." Its findings followed interviews by the FBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Secretary of State's investigators (The Guardian).
• Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Giuliani had defamed the women. On 15 December 2023 a jury set damages at $148 million, including $75 million in punitive damages (New York Times). The parties settled in January 2025 (CNN). OAN settled in 2022, and the women later settled with The Gateway Pundit (AP).
• The federal indictment's account of these events is an allegation. That case was dismissed on 25 November 2024 after Trump won the election (Wikipedia, citing contemporaneous reporting).
• On 7 November 2025 Trump issued Proclamation 10989, a blanket pardon for 2020-election "alternate elector" conduct and "efforts to expose voting fraud". Giuliani is among those named (Federal Register). A federal pardon does not touch the civil judgment.

Legal analysis

Upgrade check (international crimes). No Rome Statute crime is in play. There is no armed conflict. A campaign of false accusations against two individuals, however grave its effect on them, is not a "widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population" under Article 7.

Domestic and human-rights elements.

1. Falsity. Confirmed. A federal court found Giuliani's statements defamatory, the State Election Board found the allegations baseless, and state officials and the DOJ had told the Trump camp the video was benign before the 10 December presentation and the 2 January call.
2. Knowledge. Strong for Trump's 2 January statements. He had been told on 15 December that the tape showed nothing improper (indictment ¶27), and when Raffensperger offered a link disproving the claim he replied, "I don't care about a link, I don't need it" (¶31(a)). The indictment is an allegation, not a finding; no court adjudicated Trump's own knowledge.
3. Harm to identifiable people. Confirmed. Death threats, racist abuse, forced relocation and loss of work are documented in sworn testimony and the jury's damages award.
4. State action. Trump spoke as a sitting president on an official call to a state official. Giuliani acted as the President's personal lawyer, not as a government officer. The ICCPR Art. 17 obligation to protect against attacks on honour and reputation applies most directly to Trump's own statements.

Strongest defence argument. Trump's statements were political speech made in the course of a good-faith election challenge, and liability attached only to Giuliani. That argument explains why Trump was never found civilly liable here. It does not change the factual record: the accusation was false, officials had told him so, and the women suffered the harm the jury compensated.

Why this grade

Severe. This is a serious, documented violation of the rights of two identifiable private individuals, with concrete harm, in which the President personally participated while in office. It is not critical, because it concerns two people rather than a systematic structural attack. The wider effort to overturn the Georgia result is covered in the Raffensperger call entry. No warCrimeClassification is given because no international crime is in play.