Multiple news outlets are reporting that infamous right-wing election conspiracy-slinging website, The Gateway Pundit, has declared bankruptcy in order to “consolidate” risk associated with multiple pending lawsuits. These defamation lawsuits are the result of their false accusations against Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, as well as Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer. The Gateway Pundit reported a fabricated story that Moss and Freeman committed election fraud in Georgia while they were election workers there in 2020. This coverage led to harassment of the two women. Similarly, The Gateway Pundit falsely accused Eric Coomer of manipulating voting machines to help Biden in the 2020 election.
The lawsuit of Moss and Freeman stems from their previous defamation lawsuit against former Trump lackey Rudy Giuliani in which he deflected blame to The Gateway Pundit. Giuliani lost his case, receiving a $148 million dollar judgement. Giuliani also declared bankruptcy. Dominion Voting Systems won a similar defamation settlement against Fox News of $787.5 million for lies Fox broadcast implying that Dominion had rigged the 2020 for Biden.
The Guardian writes, “The defamation lawsuits are one strategy pro-democracy groups, private companies and individuals are using to attempt to hold people and organizations accountable for spreading election lies, especially ones that cause harm to people like Freeman, Moss and Coomer.”
According to npr, “The Gateway Pundit's parent company's bankruptcy filing shows that the company has between $100,001 and $500,000 in liabilities and between $500,001 and $1 million in assets,” suggesting that multiple large judgements could pose a significant financial burden.
However, as Attorney Mark Bankston, who represented families of Sandy Hook victims in their lawsuit against Alex Jones, told npr, "There's been a lot of hope recently in our legal system that certain plaintiffs are going to be able to find justice through the courts. [...] Unfortunately, these bankruptcy proceedings sort of temper that hope. There is a lot of legal process in this country that is designed to assist those who have a lot of resources to avoid paying their just debts."
**UPDATE**
First, a caveat. IANAL. Now, on to a discussion of bankruptcy law.
In the comments, Tortmaster (gotta be an expert on the subject with a name like that!) says:
In the comments, Tortmaster (gotta be an expert on the subject with a name like that!) says:
Defamation, by its nature, is an intentional tort. Intentional torts are not discharged in bankruptcy. Additionally, punitive damages are not discharged in a bankruptcy.
Just thought you should be as happy about this news as I am!
Basically, the court will appoint a trustee to oversee the bankrupt’s property. That is actually pretty good news as well because Gateway Pundit will have a harder time squirreling away and hiding assets (like Alex Jones attempted to do). Cheers!
I searched the internet to verify this statement because that is just due diligence. Most sources support this conclusion, but like I said, IANAL. In any case, I also found this article from February 20, 2024 on CNN that reports “Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ruled last year that Jones can’t discharge the defamation awards because those debts stemmed from intentional and malicious conduct” and that the Sandy Hook families have voted to liquidate Alex Jones’ assets in order to collect their roughly $1.5 billion in damages. Looks like they are getting close!
Also, for those interested in public apologies, you might be interested to know the following, reported by the Missouri Independent.
Newsmax was dropped from Coomer’s lawsuit in April 2021 after it apologized and aired a statement that it had found no evidence that the accusations made against him by Trump’s team and supporters were true.
One America News Network settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the Georgia election workers last year, agreeing to say on air that there was “no widespread voter fraud” in Georgia in 2020 and that the plaintiffs “did not engage in ballot fraud or criminal misconduct.”
Finally, also in the comments, as user stlsophos points out, Gateway Pundit’s real name is Jim Hoft (he founded it with brother Joe, not sure whether he is still involved. As I told stlsophos, all the other articles I read included a quote from him defaming the litigants further, so I decided to ignore him as a person. However, maybe he deserves to be “named and shamed”, so that’s his real name. Shame on him.