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.
The channel, created in May 2021, had 133 subscribers as of Tuesday night.
In a post from 14 February, the administrator of the page accused
Ruby Freeman,
a former Fulton county elections worker,
of misconduct,
despite a Georgia elections board finding that all of the conspiracy theories about her were “false and unsubstantiated”.
“We clearly see her double scanning ballots,” the channel administrator wrote about Freeman, a regular target of attention on the Telegram page.
“We see her incriminating Facebook posts. Yet, she is made to be a victim and given hero awards.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/18/fulton-county-telegram-election-conspiracy-bridget-thorne?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other