WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — In emotional testimony Tuesday, a Georgia election worker told the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol that she and her mother were targets of racist death threats and struggle to live normal lives after President Donald Trump and his campaign falsely accused them by name of committing fraud during the 2020 election.
Wandrea “ArShaye” Moss, who is Black, said she received numerous death threats after Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani falsely spread allegations that she and her mother, Ruby “Lady Ruby” Freeman, engaged in ballot fraud at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on the night of the presidential election.
“It’s turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card. I don’t transfer calls. I don’t want anyone knowing my name,” Moss testified Tuesday. “I don’t go anywhere with my mom. I don’t go to the grocery store at all. I haven’t been anywhere at all. I’ve gained about 60 pounds.”
She said the threats ranged from being told she and her mother were going to jail to being told she was lucky it was “2020 and not 1920.” The pair were also targets of online harassment and racial slurs.
In a call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shortly after the election, Trump brought up Moss 18 times, accusing her of election fraud. Raffensperger also testified Tuesday about the aftermath of the election and his role in investigating allegations of election fraud raised by the Trump campaign. He too described becoming a target of internet doxing and violent threats.
Reuters reports a volunteer Trump campaign attorney, Jacki Pick, said two unnamed Fulton County election workers had engaged in maneuvers involving “suitcases” of ballots pulled out from under a table and illegally counted through the night. She identified them as the “lady with the blonde braids” — Moss — and an “older” woman with the “name of Ruby” on her shirt — Freeman.
In addition to theft, Guiliani accused the pair of hacking into Georgia’s voting machines while passing USB thumb drives between them, “as if they’re vials of heroin and cocaine. I mean, it’s obvious to anyone who is a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they’re engaged in surreptitious illegal activity.”
Moss, who had worked for the Fulton County elections department since 2012, and Freeman, a temporary election worker, also told the committee how their lives have been turned upside down.
Freeman told the committee she couldn’t believe Trump was calling her a “professional vote scammer” and a “known political operative.”
“The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one,” she said. “But he targeted me: Lady Ruby, a small-business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.”
Freeman said she’s lost her name and reputation “all because a group of people starting with #45 and his ally, Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye about how the presidential election was stolen.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.