{"id":2332285,"date":"2024-08-28T05:01:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T09:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raffensperger-sued-over-falsehoods-about-election-volunteer\/"},"modified":"2024-08-28T05:06:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T09:06:44","slug":"raffensperger-sued-over-falsehoods-about-election-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/raffensperger-sued-over-falsehoods-about-election-volunteer\/","title":{"rendered":"Raffensperger Sued Over Falsehoods About Election Volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fraffensperger-sued-over-falsehoods-about-election-volunteer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2332285&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Georgia Secretary \u2062of State Brad Raffensperger\u2062 is embroiled in a defamation lawsuit related to statements he made in his 2021\u2064 book, &#8220;Integrity Counts.&#8221; In the book, \u2063Raffensperger falsely claimed that\u2062 a video of ballot counting\u200c at State Farm Arena in Atlanta was \u2064manipulated to misrepresent the voting process. The \u2063lawsuit, brought forth by Jacki Pick, a Republican volunteer involved\u200c in the Trump legal team&#8217;s investigation \u200cof the election, asserts that her presentation of\u200c the \u200dvideo\u2014intended \u200dto\u200b provide evidence of unsupervised ballot counting\u2014was not edited or deceptive as Raffensperger suggested.<\/p>\n<p>Raffensperger&#8217;s controversial tenure as Secretary of \u200bState includes decisions that have drawn criticism from election integrity advocates, particularly regarding signature verification for mail-in ballots and accepting funding from organizations that influenced election operations in Georgia. Following the contentious 2020\u2063 election, he faced backlash for how the elections were conducted, especially in Fulton County, \u2062known for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/poll-80-of-americans-support-photo-id-for-voters-71-support-easier-early-voting\/\" title=\"POLL: 80% of Americans Support Photo ID For Voters, 71% Support \u2018Easier\u2019 Early Voting\">election administration issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As the lawsuit progresses, Raffensperger has sought help from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-he-guilty-of-sexual-misconduct-depends-on-his-political-party\/\" title=\"Is He Guilty Of Sexual Misconduct? Depends On His Political Party.\">major media outlets<\/a> to shape the narrative\u2064 surrounding the case, inaccurately framing it as retaliation for challenging former President \u200dTrump. The crux of the lawsuit is about retraction and damages from\u200d the false statements made in\u2062 the \u2063book, rather than political disagreements \u200bfrom the 2020 election.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is facing a powerful defamation lawsuit arising from false claims he made about a Republican election volunteer in his 2021 book &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Integrity-Counts-Brad-Raffensperger\/dp\/1637630336\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Integrity Counts<\/a>.&rdquo; He wrote and published that a video presentation of unsupervised ballot counting at State Farm Arena in Atlanta had been &ldquo;doctored,&rdquo; &ldquo;chopped up,&rdquo; &ldquo;cut,&rdquo; &ldquo;sliced up,&rdquo; and &ldquo;deceptively sliced and edited so that it appeared to show the exact opposite of reality,&rdquo; allegedly including a &ldquo;slice of video that had removed the clear evidence&rdquo; that the law had been followed.<\/p>\n<p>None of that was true. Jacki Pick, a Republican volunteer on the Trump legal team, was the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hRCXUNOwOjw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sole presenter of the video<\/a> to Georgia legislators to show that Republican election observers&rsquo; claims about unsupervised ballot counting in Georgia&rsquo;s largest county were true. While she did not show the entire 20 hours of the video in her 12-minute presentation, nothing she showed was edited, chopped up, sliced, or diced, in any way.<\/p>\n<p>Raffensperger published the self-promotional book in November 2021 as part of his campaign for re-election. It came a year after he oversaw one of the most controversial state elections of 2020. He had faced a deluge of criticism from election integrity advocates over various decisions he and his office made in the run up to and aftermath of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>For example, in March 2020, Raffensperger succumbed to the legal efforts of Democrat activist Marc Elias to water down signature verification requirements for mail-in ballots. After several Democrat counties poorly administered primary elections in 2020, Raffensperger voluntarily embraced &ldquo;Zuck Bucks,&rdquo; the scheme by which Democrat operatives took over government election operations in the <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/shining-a-light-on-zuck-bucks-in-key-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blue areas of swing states<\/a> and helped run Get Out The Vote programs. Georgia was the <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/which-states-did-ctcl-flood-with-zuck-bucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">primary target of the operation<\/a>, receiving $45 million from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The results were remarkable.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia went from a more than five point margin of victory for Republicans in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/elections\/live_results\/2016_general\/president\/ga.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2016<\/a> to narrow loss in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/2020\/president\/Georgia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2020<\/a>. Raffensperger&rsquo;s office immediately went into a defensive posture, rejecting information requests from Republican activists, refusing to investigate <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/01\/exclusive-2024-georgia-election-poised-to-explode-thanks-to-secretary-of-states-inaction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">legitimate claims of illegal voting<\/a>, and even <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/16\/washington-post-accuses-trump-of-a-crime-based-on-fabricated-quotes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fabricating Trump quotes that were cited in his impeachment<\/a>. They also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/07\/new-book-admits-fani-willis-get-trump-investigation-began-with-illegal-recording\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">illegally recorded a key phone call<\/a> they held with the Trump campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/17\/medias-entire-georgia-narrative-is-fraudulent-not-just-the-fabricated-trump-quotes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mischaracterized the context of the call<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/07\/new-book-admits-fani-willis-get-trump-investigation-began-with-illegal-recording\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">immediately leaked it to the Washington Post<\/a>. These and other actions have led election integrity activists to view the entire Georgia Secretary of State office with suspicion and frustration.<\/p>\n<p>No Georgia county had more problems in 2020 than the notoriously corrupt Fulton County. The county had so many problems with administering elections that they were under a consent decree from the U.S. Department of Justice. Among other problems in 2020, officials at its central vote tabulation facility had told the media and partisan election observers that they were <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/12\/07\/no-the-georgia-vote-counting-video-was-not-debunked-not-even-close\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">done for the night<\/a> only to continue counting after the observers and media had left. Republicans were outraged.<\/p>\n<p>Raffensperger&rsquo;s office downplayed the concerns and repeatedly said nothing was amiss. He and his representatives at first denied that any media or observers had been told operations had stopped for the evening (<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/12\/07\/no-the-georgia-vote-counting-video-was-not-debunked-not-even-close\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">despite ample evidence they had been told<\/a>), then they said that no counting took place after observers left, and then they claimed that government monitors had been present the entire time. In early December 2020, Trump attorneys found security footage of the arena that showed those claims were false. The presentation of that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-swatted-for-a-third-time-in-less-than-a-week\/\" title=\"Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Swatted for a Third Time in Less Than a Week\">security video footage<\/a> went viral before left-wing censorship outlets were able to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/12\/07\/no-the-georgia-vote-counting-video-was-not-debunked-not-even-close\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suppress the story<\/a> and falsely claim it had been debunked.<\/p>\n<h2>CNN and New York Times Pile On<\/h2>\n<p>In August of 2024, Raffensperger ran to his allies at left-wing propaganda outlets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/16\/us\/politics\/brad-raffensperger-2020-georgia-election.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The New York Times<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/transcripts.cnn.com\/show\/skc\/date\/2024-08-16\/segment\/01\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN<\/a> to have them mischaracterize the defamation lawsuit and help him personally raise money to fight it. &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/16\/us\/politics\/brad-raffensperger-2020-georgia-election.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Defying Trump Over Election Costs a Republican, Literally<\/a>,&rdquo; blared the front page headline of the New York Times, which claimed that he had spent $500,000 to fight the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the lawsuit has nothing to do with &ldquo;defying Trump&rdquo; in 2020. Rather it deals with the words Raffensperger published one year later in his book about Pick&rsquo;s video presentation.<\/p>\n<p>New York Times activist Nick Corasaniti uncritically regurgitates Raffensperger&rsquo;s claim that Pick demands he take a particular view of the 2020 election. That is, of course, false. She merely requires in her suit that he retract false statements he made about her in his 2021 book and pay damages for the reputational harm he caused her. Her lawsuit provides many examples of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-comms-team-gets-a-pass-where-trump-administration-would-have-had-a-scandal\/\" title=\"Biden Comms Team Gets A Pass Where Trump Administration Would Have Had A Scandal\">left-wing media<\/a> allies repeating his false claims of deceptive editing and false testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Raffensperger &ldquo;has been forced to spend half a million dollars defending himself in court for having stood up to former President Donald J. Trump&rsquo;s efforts to overturn the 2020 election,&rdquo; the Corasaniti asserts without evidence. Again, Raffensperger is in court over the false statements he published in his 2021 book, not for how his office illegally recorded phone calls and leaked them to their political allies in left-wing media, or any other action against Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Corasaniti without evidence characterizes the video presentation made by Pick as having included &ldquo;debunked &hellip; claims of election fraud.&rdquo; In fact, her presentation showed undeniable evidence of unsupervised ballot counting in a county known for troubled election administration.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ms. Pick&rsquo;s lawyers let it be known that if Mr. Raffensperger wanted to settle the case, he would first have to say publicly that her presentation of the video was not deceptive. In other words, Mr. Raffensperger says, he would effectively have to tell his own new lie,&rdquo; Corasaniti writes. At no point do he or Raffensperger make a case for why accurately noting the video presentation was not deceptive would be a lie. Further, at no point does Corasaniti provide any evidence of anything deceptive about the video presentation. <\/p>\n<p>Corasaniti than claims that victims of defamation suing could be a threat to election officials getting their work done. Again, Raffensperger is being sued not for his work as an election official but for his personal 2021 book in which he defamed Pick.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ms. Pick never once asked Mr. Raffensperger to make statements regarding the 2020 election; her only concern is in repairing her damaged reputation caused by false statements made by Mr. Raffensperger in 2021, a full year later.&nbsp; Ms. Pick will hold Mr. Raffensperger accountable for making false statements about her, and the fact he&rsquo;s more interested in diverting attention to a 2020 election narrative that portrays him favorably and away from addressing his 2021 defamatory statements shows he is extremely concerned that justice will be served,&rdquo; said Bill Whitehill, a member of her legal team.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist. She is Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College and a Fox News contributor. She is the co-author of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Justice-Trial-Kavanaugh-Confirmation-Supreme\/dp\/1621579832\">Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court<\/a><\/em>. She is the author of &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections\/dp\/168451259X\/\">Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.<\/a><\/em>&#8221; Reach her at <b><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/mailto:mzhemingway@thefederalist.com\">mzhemingway@thefederalist.com<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is currently dealing with a significant defamation lawsuit stemming from inaccurate statements he made about a Republican election volunteer in his 2021 book, &#8220;Integrity Counts.&#8221; In the book, he claimed that a video showing unsupervised ballot counting at State Farm Arena in Atlanta had been &#8220;doctored,&#8221; &#8220;chopped up,&#8221; and misleadingly edited to misrepresent the truth, allegedly omitting clear evidence that the law was followed. However, these assertions are false. Jacki Pick, a Republican volunteer on the Trump legal team, was the only person who presented this video to Georgia legislators to support claims made by Republican election observers regarding unsupervised ballot counting in Georgia&#8217;s largest county. Although she did not show all 20 hours of footage during her 12-minute presentation, none of it was altered or edited.<\/p>\n<p>Raffensperger released this self-promotional book in November 2021 as part of his re-election campaign following one of the most contentious state elections in 2020. He faced intense criticism from election integrity advocates for various decisions made by him and his office before and after that election.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, Raffensperger agreed to legal pressure from Democrat activist Marc Elias to relax signature verification requirements for mail-in ballots. After several Democratic counties struggled with primary elections in 2020, Raffensperger accepted funding known as \u201cZuck Bucks,\u201d which allowed Democrat operatives to manage government election processes in key swing state areas like Georgia\u2014receiving $45 million from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. This led to significant changes: Georgia shifted from a more than five-point Republican victory margin in 2016 to a narrow loss for Republicans in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In response to criticism following these events, Raffensperger\u2019s office became defensive\u2014rejecting information requests from Republican activists and failing to investigate legitimate allegations of illegal voting while also fabricating quotes attributed to Trump during his impeachment process. They even recorded an important phone call with Trump&#8217;s campaign without permission and leaked it misleadingly.<\/p>\n<p>Fulton County experienced some of the most severe issues during the controversial elections; it had so many problems that it fell under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice due to its poor administration practices. Reports indicated officials at their central vote tabulation facility misled media and partisan observers about halting operations for counting when they actually continued after those individuals left\u2014a situation that outraged Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>Initially downplaying concerns raised about Fulton County&#8217;s actions, Raffensperger\u2019s office denied any wrongdoing despite evidence suggesting otherwise; they later claimed no counting occurred after observers departed but were contradicted when security footage surfaced showing otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>In August 2024, facing this defamation lawsuit over statements made about Pick&#8217;s video presentation\u2014rather than any actions related directly against Trump\u2014Raffensperger sought assistance from left-leaning media outlets like The New York Times and CNN which misrepresented details surrounding his case while helping him raise funds for legal defense costs associated with fighting back against claims he defamed Pick through false statements published one year later.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times inaccurately framed headlines around Raffensperger\u2019s spending on defending himself as being linked directly with opposing Trump regarding electoral matters rather than focusing on defamatory remarks concerning Pick\u2019s presentation specifically aimed at restoring her reputation damaged by those untrue claims made within his book.<\/p>\n<p>Pick&#8217;s lawsuit emphasizes her desire solely revolves around correcting misinformation spread by Raffensperger rather than demanding any specific narrative regarding past elections be acknowledged or changed publicly\u2014a point reiterated by her attorney Bill Whitehill who noted how concerned Raffensperger appears over potential accountability stemming from these allegations instead diverting attention towards favorable portrayals surrounding himself amidst ongoing controversies tied back into previous electoral disputes involving Donald Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":2332286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/2048px-Informed-_Conversations_on_Democracy_in_the_Digital_Age_-_1A0A8281_52530955543.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32360,32644,4585,32779,6137],"class_list":["post-2332285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-election-fraud","tag-election-integrity","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal-issues","tag-raffensperger"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/2048px-Informed-_Conversations_on_Democracy_in_the_Digital_Age_-_1A0A8281_52530955543.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2332285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2332285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2332285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2332285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}