Two Georgia election workers agreed to settle defamation claims against a right-wing cable news channel, which they said falsely claimed they engaged in ballot fraud during the 2020 election, according to a court document filed Thursday.
Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss sued One America News Network, its owners and its chief White House correspondent in December over debunked claims that the mother-and-daughter pair introduced suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other acts of fraud to try to alter the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia.
The lawsuit said the cable network, known as OAN, continued to accuse Freeman and Moss of wrongdoing even after Georgia election officials refuted the allegations. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, appeared frequently on the network and along with OAN, “continued to publish and amplify the lie,” according to the suit filed in federal court in Washington.
According to a status report filed Thursday, Freeman and Moss met with the OAN parties on Tuesday for a “successful one-day mediation” and “agreed upon and signed a binding set of settlement terms that they anticipate memorializing in a formal settlement agreement.” Those terms were not disclosed.
Once that is finalized, Freeman and Moss intend to file a motion to dismiss the OAN parties from the lawsuit, the status report says.
