Georgia lawmaker runs secret election-conspiracy Telegram channel
Bridget Thorne, a Republican elected in Fulton county in 2022, has spread election fraud lies and accused county employees of crimes
A Fulton county commissioner in Georgia has been operating a private Telegram channel for years, propagating debunked claims about the 2020 election, and spreading accusations of crimes by county employees, including Ruby Freeman, an election worker defamed by Rudy Giuliani in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.
Bridget Thorne, a Republican representing the relatively conservative cities of Fulton county north of Atlanta, indirectly identifies herself as the creator and administrator of the Fulton County Elections channel on Telegram, a mobile messaging platform, in multiple posts to its page. The channel uses the official logo of the Fulton county board of registration and elections.
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Thorne has regularly posted articles during the last three years from fringe and far-right publications like the Epoch Times claiming election fraud in Fulton county and elsewhere around the country. Between the inception of the page in May 2021 and her election in November 2022, Thorne reposted videos and articles by VoterGa, an activist group founded by Garland Favorito, a far-right conspiracy theorist who continues to press debunked claims about the 2020 election in court and the media.
Thorne also sought to recruit poll workers through her contacts on the page, using claims of fraud as a rallying cry. “We are in a pivotal time in our country, and we need YOU to stand up NOW,” she wrote. “Voting is not ENOUGH. Freedom is not FREE. YOU can help end the corruption, illegal conduct, and incompetence in Fulton County Elections and restore trust and faith in our system again.”
She believes the election was a conspiracy because she creates them herself. Typical Republican.
Using the name and official logo of a government agency like this is a big no-no. Hopefully there are some administrative repercussions for doing so.
If I stood up a website with the logo of the company I work for and published a bunch of politically charged lies, I'm pretty sure they'd fire me. They would also quite possibly sue me as to discharge any liability on their side.
There are rules against doing this as well as penalties that can be levied. Will there actually be any repercussions for this person? Likely not. Should there be? Hell yes.
This is very actionable. This is why Rudy Giuliani is going to die penniless.
This was my first thought too. Like surely this is further defamation. That Ruby Freeman lady is going to get another big civil case payout.