Rightwing US website that spreads election conspiracies declares bankruptcy

The Gateway Pundit, a rightwing website known for spreading election conspiracies, will declare bankruptcy as it faces lawsuits for defamation.

The site’s parent company, TGP Communications, will file for bankruptcy in Florida “as a result of the progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet”, founder Jim Hoft wrote on the website.

Those lawsuits include one from the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who sued the organization in Missouri, where it is based, after the website perpetuated false claims that the two had been involved in election fraud in Georgia.

In a separate case, Freeman and Moss secured a $148m judgment against Rudy Giuliani for spreading election lies about them and defaming them. After the verdict, the former New York City mayor and Trump attorney filed for bankruptcy, complicating whether or how Freeman and Moss can get paid.

The Gateway Pundit also faces a suit in Colorado from a former Dominion Voting Systems employee, Eric Coomer, who alleges the outlet defamed him by claiming he rigged the election against Trump.

Election offices have faced waves of harassing messages after Gateway Pundit stories have been published, often targeting staff members with threatening and abusive language.

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. Those on the defense often refer to these lawsuits as “lawfare”.

Hoft said that the company seeking bankruptcy protection was “not an admission of fault or culpability”, but instead a way to reorganize and consolidate lawsuits “when attacks are coming from all sides”. The company will be able to put the lawsuits it faces into one court, he wrote.

Even though the Gateway Pundit is based in Missouri, its parent company filed paperwork last week to become a limited liability company in Florida, where the bankruptcy claim was filed.

The Gateway Pundit said in its bankruptcy filing that it had between $500,000 and $1m in assets and between $100,001 and $500,000 in liabilities. A list of its 20 largest creditors contained mostly anonymous individuals.

RonNell Andersen Jones, a first amendment scholar at the University of Utah, said that maneuvering to declare bankruptcy showed the challenges of using defamation law to try and hold those who spread misinformation accountable.

“It seems to be an increasingly common maneuver for outlets accused of widespread libelous disinformation to declare bankruptcy in an effort to avoid or delay defamation damages,” she said. “Bankruptcy after trial is frustrating to defamation plaintiffs because it robs them of the chance to quickly and fully recover for their loss. Bankruptcy before trial is surely all the more frustrating.

“These moves keep us from being able to use libel law as a public truth-finding mechanism,” she added. “The goal here seems clear: for the defamer to essentially make itself judgment-proof rather than facing the libel trial and the potentially staggering consequences for the lie.”