joining us this hour, happy to have you here on a friday night. we'll start tonight with a story we first brought you last week and today took a new sort of baffling turn. if you saw our coverage of the story last week, you'll remember it, because it starts with a really unsettling 911 call. this was just over a year ago, december 6th last year, just before 10:00 p.m. on december 6th and a woman named ruby freeman in cop county georgia, not the first time she called 911 around that time, she had in fact been begging the police for protection repeatedly because she was getting a deluge of threats and harassment, really specific threats over the phone, text, email, over social media, but on the night of december 6, last year, 10:00 at night, december 6, these people who were threatening her turned up at her front door. >> i've been having harassing phone calls and emails and they came out and made a police report yesterday. and last night, about 10 minutes after 9:00, somebody was bamming on the door and now somebody's bamming on the door. oh they screaming. they still bamming on the door. >> okay. >> they still bamming on the door. lord jesus, where's the police? >> they're on the way, ma'am. >> oh god. >> ruby freeman is 62 years old. she's the woman on the receiving end of all the vitreal and all the threats and as of december 6, that night, that 911 call last year, it was in-person intimidation and she's not a public figure. she's a 62-year-old retiry, ran a boutique business selling fashion accessories but suddenly after the election last year she became public enemy number one in trump world. she became public enemy number one to all these very angry people she had never met and it happened because president donald trump accused her, her personally, by name, of stealing the presidential election from him in the state of georgia. so we played that 911 call from her last week when it was published in the latest installment of this incredible on going warrior series about threats and harassment against election officials and election workers in the aftermath of the 2020 election. ruby freedman's daughter had long been an election worker in fulton county, largely democratic accounty, when the election approached it looked like fulton county would be under staffed for the election so she asked her mom, ruby, if she would sign up as a temporary worker to process ballots on election day and the two of them, mother and daughter, worked with other election workers through the day and night processing ballots at the state farm arena. but as president trump and his colleagues, coconspiritors fought to overthrow the election and say he won instead, one of the pieces of evidence they ginned up for their case for georgia to throw out the election results was a video clip from the closed circuit television video, the surveillance video on election night at the state farm arena and that video clip happened to show ruby freeman and her daughter, who we just heard on the 911 call, doing their jobs as election workers. the video clip literally just showed them doing what they were supposed to be doing, taking ballots out of the secure containers ballots were transported in on election day and taking those ballots out of that container and running them through the below ballot counting machine. that's what they were supposed to do as election workers, that's what they were paid to do, what they did as election workers. but former president trump and his lawyers took this otherwise anidine clip of two black women running ballots through the machine like they're supposed to and started telling everybody what that video tape actually showed is ruby freeman and her daughter stealing the election. trump lawyers showed the video to georgia republicans in the state legislature and they showed it to right wing news outlets and all along showing this clip, saying what it showed was these two women counting suitcases full of illegal ballots. well, how could you tell the ballots are illegal? well, look, they're coming out of these cases. well, yes, those are the kind of secure cases ballots are transported in on election day to be counted by election workers. but look at these tape, look how guilty they look, look at these black women and those ballots. they must be illegal ballots. look how illegal this all looks. just say this is them doing something illegal and people will believe it. gentlemen you see on your screen here, mr. hannaby from the fox news channel, he ran the clip as if it showed something ominous and illegal although it did not. almost immediately, conservative website identified mrs. freeman and her daughter by name. then trump lawyer, rudy giuliani started recognizing in state hearings. this massive jumbotron in georgia played the clip, again, doing what they're supposed to be doing, taking ballots out of the secure container they were supposed to be in. but they kept saying it showed a crime, well look at it, look at all the black women with the ballots. look how criminal it looks. you may also remember that infamous phone call in which president trump tried to pressure the georgia secretary of state into finding enough trump votes in the state somewhere to overturn biden's win. in that phone call, donald trump mentioned rudy freeman's name 18 times. called her a professional vote scammer and a hustler. the head of elections in fulton county said after that call, the harassment of ruby freedman got worse and kept going. today, she spoke with reporters zo and jason zepp doing remarkable work across the country, but just as a sort of window into what this has been like for these women, listen to the conditions they felt they had to lay down just to be comfortable talking to these reuters reporters about what they've been through. quote, from this story, the two women agreed to be interview on the condition that the reporters not take photos, publish audio recordings of the meeting or disclose where the meeting took place. both ms. moss and ms. freedman changed appearances since the videos circulated. reuters agreed not to describe how they look now. offering the first account of their detail they told reuters about threats of lynching, racial slurs, alarming visits from visitors to the home of both her and her mother. freeman said she feared for her safety, moss not leaving her home but for work. moss' teenage son also targeted by threats and racist messages, started failing in school. the freshman was using his mom's cell phone. he needed the device to connect to the internet for virtual learning during the pandemic, the only way he could get online. as threats inundated that phone, he couldn't concentrate. battered by racial messages and texts one saying quote, be glad it's 2020 and not 1920, you'd be hanging along with your mother. one threat shook her deeply, a quote that said cute little boy, which she took as a threat to her sons left. alarm peaks in january when a suspected capitol rioter was arrested and had a list of names of people to be executed, freeman and her daughter's names were on that list. moss said before she enjoyed being the outgoing face of the fulton county elections office, getting filmed for training videos, answering calls, she tucked her business card into the envelope of every registration application she mailed out and enjoyed talking with voters. today when the phone rings, she's afraid to answer, rarely leaves her cubicle, says she's lost the energy to cook, clean or even walk the dog. says in a soft voice, quote, i can't enjoy anything. i just really have lost myself. but here's where we get to today's very strange turn in this story. a head-spinning thing that occurred in the midst of all this and which reuters is reporting on for the first time today and if you've seen coverage of this today, the thing that's gotten all the headlines is a celebrity angle, possible connection of these events to a famous person and we will get to that, but just first, try to experience this story as ruby freeman experienced it. right? when she got this weird, out-of-the-blue visit from a mysterious stranger after receiving these threats weeks and weeks after the election. reuters put together this story from interviewing ruby freeman and her daughter and police reports and video they obtained. so this part of the story happens on january 4th about a month after the 911 call at the top of the show we played, at this point, ruby, her daughter, they've been under siege for a month of death threats, harassing calls, malls, phone calls, a people banging on the door to come in, saying they're at their houses to make citizen's arrest, that's been going on a month at this point, from early december to early january. at this point, it's january 4th, somebody knocked on ms. freeman's door, understandably, she would not open the door. she called a neighbor and asked the neighbor to talk to whoever was on her porch so the neighbor came over from next door and talked to this woman standing by her door and this woman told freeman's neighbor that she was there because ruby freeman is in danger and said she has been sent to provide assistance. ms. freeman is so freaked out after the past month, at that point she calls 911 again and asks them to send a police officer over to her house just so she can step outside her front door and stock to this stranger. the stranger says she's there to help that freeman is in danger and has been sent to get her protected from some imminent threat. she wants to hear about that but asks for a police officer to be there. she calls the police department and tells the woman, i will talk to you but not without a police officer present. police officer arrives. and speaks with the woman outside ruby freeman's house, the visitor gave her name as trevian kutti said she was sent by a high profile individual who she didn't identify to give freeman an urgent message, confess to trump's voter-fraud allegations or people would come to her home in 48 hours and she would come to jail. the police officer suggests the two women if they were going to meet, should meet at a police station so ms. freeman could feel safe so they all went to the police station, so freeman and this trevian go to the police station, they all sit down while a police officer stands nearby and because that police officer standing nearby that there is body camera footage of that part of the meeting. so we got, on tape, some of that meeting as captured by police body camera and published today in edited form by reuters. the audio is a little hard to hear, you can make it out, a little hard to hear. reuters is the entity that added the subtitles you're see on your screen. i'm just going to stop there for a second, you can see in the subtitles they're talking about harrison ford, to be clear, not talking about harrison ford the actor. not even clear they're talking about a person named harrison ford, but clearly somebody else who is working with this person who is speaking to and, ultimately, threatening the election worker ruby freeman, so don't be thinking it's the actor, it's definitely not, but let's go back to it. >> at that point, the police officer, whose body cam footage is what we're watching here, that police officer leaves the room, or goes and stands further away because this crisis manager lady who's laying out this very dangerous situation for ruby freeman that she needs to know about, apparently, this part, she doesn't want the police officer overhearing, the supposed plan to get ruby freeman safe, to move her, it has to happen urgently in the next 48 hours. but what reuters reports happens next after the police officer moved away, according to ruby freeman is this crisis manager lady got this guy who she's been describing on the speakerphone and, quote, over the next hour, the woman in the room with ruby freeman and the man on the speaker phone tried to get ruby freeman to implicate herself in committing voter fraud on election day. she offered legal assistance in exchange, ruby freeman recalled her saying, quote, if you don't tell everything, you're going to jail. growing suspicious, freeman jumped from her chair and saying, quote, the devil is a liar, before calling for an officer. later at home, she found the woman was a major trump supporter. and this, my friends, is where the story that couldn't get any weirder gets weirder because in addition to being a major trump supporter, that woman, travian kutti apparently works for kanye west, the music star. it's important to note kanye west was a trump supporter and briefly ran for president in 2019, that his supposed campaign was actually run by trump operatives and he didn't mind people knowing that. in addition to working for kanye west in an online biography now deleted from the web, said to serve in the young black leadership counsel under president donald trump. we haven't found evidence there was a young black leadership counsel, but she claims there was and she was a part of it. we have tried to reach her and find information, and when i say we tried multiple times to reach her, i really mean multiple, and we have not heard back. this raises a potentially explosive question. these folks trying to get ruby freeman to confess to election fraud, were they really there as concerned citizens, or on behalf of the trump campaign? did the trump campaign know they were doing this? did the trump campaign send her to get some confession out of ruby freeman. they said she had to act within 48 hours. well why? 48 hours away from that was january 6, when the election was certified by congress. if they were trying to get evidence of election fraud, some confirmation of election fraud to stop that certification, 48 hours would be the relevant timeframe and in terms of answering the question of who sent these folks to intimidate ruby freeman or did they potentially do it freelance, let's not forget this happened in the state of georgia. there is right now, an on going seizure criminal investigation by the fulton county office on trump's attempt to overturn the election in georgia, involving a so-called rico prosecutor brought on specifically for this case, to find out if this was an organized conspiracy to commit multiple crimes in pursuit of a single objective. if election officials in georgia were intimidated and pressured to maladminister the election or throw the count, or do anything else, that would be a crime under state law in georgia. we reached out to the fulton county's da office tonight and told us, quote, threats against election workers and election administrators are part of the their investigation and any evident of those threats is relevant to the investigation. ruby freeman and her daughter are election workers. that is why they are under threat. threatening election workers, threatening election administrators is a crime. it is a crime that is under investigation already in the state of georgia. if those people who were threatening and intimidating, trying to extort some kind of false confession from ruby freeman under some violence that was going to come to her, if acting on their own behalf, that's potentially crime. if there on behalf of the trump administration or campaign, that's already under investigation by the fulton county da's office and i should tell you, as far as this threat that kanye west's crisis manager lady said she was there to protect freeman from, the threat that in 48 hours people would come to ruby freeman's home and disrupt her freedom, well, according to a lawsuit ms. freeman and her daughter filed against the website that publicly identified them and put them in danger, a crowd of trump supporters did come on ms. freeman's house, just 48 hours after she got the stark warning it was going to happen. that's what happened at her home on january 6th, at the same time pro-trump rioters were ran sacking the u.s. capital in washington dc. ms. freeman was not actually home on january 6 when the crowd was at her house. she fled and wouldn't return for two months. other than to leave her home, it doesn't appear federal, state, or local law enforcement has done much to protect ruby freeman and her family against all these threats and efforts to intimidate and harass her. reuters reports that one year on, the threats against her and her daughter have not been investigated by local police or state authorities. federal agents have apparently monitored some of the threats but made no arrests. quote, freeman showed hundreds of threatening email and text messages to police in cobb county where she lives, she told officers about the threats, while she was there her phone buzzed nonstop with menacing calls, freeman said an officer answered more than 20 of the threatening calls. in response to freeman's sometimes panicked calls to 911, cobb county officers went to her home multiple times but police officials never opened investigations into the threats she faced. and yet, for all that, the reason we have that video of ruby freeman talking with the crisis manager lady who showed up on her doorstep to threaten her in an even more insidious way, the reason we have that tape is because when the cop suggested they go to the police officer to have that conversation, ruby freeman said yes, maybe she would be safe at the police station. she did need protection from this kind of stuff. and that, to me, that's, sort of gut-wrenching, heartbreaking part of all of this. i mean the citizenship of ruby freeman and her daughter is so clear through all of this. right? her daughter, loving to be the face of the elections office in fulton county helping her fellow citizens vote, happy to explain any questions or concerns with any voters receiving their absentee ballot applications or other assistance from the voting office. she loved doing that. asked her mom to fill in as election worker, we need folks to fill in and work, mom come help out on election day, her mom decided to come in on election day. all that, up and through ms. freeman turning to the police repeatedly because she needed someone to protect her. she trusted they would protect her. but not a single person has been charged or as far as we can tell, even investigated for what has been done to her life. it's been over a year now since this torrent of abuse started raining down on ruby freeman and her daughter because of president trump naming her, rudy giuliani naming her, this right wing website, conservative media outlets running lies about her. she didn't do anything wrong, but lest you think this is all in the past, resolved now, take a look at what's happening in georgia right now, today. former georgia republican senator david purdue, you might remember he lost his u.s. senate seat to democrat john ossaf, he is president trump's preferred candidate, to see why, pure do you now building this campaign for governor on debunked claims of voter fraud in that state, shortly after his bid this week, he said he wouldn't allow the victory to be certified in georgia if he was governor at the time. also going to delve into the conspiracy theories in 2020, and now, today, david perdue filed a lawsuit pushing the baseless conspiracies. summing it up with this headline, david perdue files election lawsuit with recycled already-disproven claims of fraud, claiming fraudulent ballots were counted in fulton county georgia, even though it's bull and has been thoroughly refuted by investigators. but mr. perdue's suit also renews the conspiracy that centers around ruby freeman and her daughter. it argues that fulton county election workers pulled out suit cases of illegal ballots and counted multiple times and you can bet the threats and harassment will kick up again for ruby freeman and her daughter and her grandson and her mom, now that that conspiracy theory is back in the news. and maybe this is all a stunt in terms of david perdue trying to get elected as the next trumpy republican governor of georgia but it's also part of a really big multivariant systematic attack by republicans on the voting system in georgia. one of the things voters in georgia just got the ability to do is replace election boards in that state. the republican-controlled georgia state legislature shifted the power from board members to local county commissions, all of which are currently controlled by republicans. so rather by allowing local communities, local counties, local municipalities to pick election officials, now republicans have the power to pick all of those officials and the effect is stark. the effect is that republicans are, now, across the state of georgia, purging democrats, particularly black democrats from county elections boards across the state. these are the boards that control voter access, you know, polling locations, and things, you know, early voting procedures. these are the entities that have control over vote tallies and audits and recounts. they're taking all the democrats, especially the black democrats off those boards and replacing them with republicans. systematically. because they've given themselves the power to do this under their new legislation. under their new legislation the republican-controlled state election board now has, for itself, the power to assume control of any county election board that it deems under performing. and surprise, one of the counties they've already deemed under-performing is fulton county, predominantly black metropolitan fulton county where most democrat votes in the state come from, the county where ruby freeman and her daughter counted votes on election day just the way they're supposed to do it, where her daughter still works at the elections office. state election board declared fulton county under-performing and already moving to take it over themselves to get control to install their own. it certainly would appear that what they are trying to do is have the biggest black democratic county in the state of georgia taken over at the local level by, presumably, white republicans. it is bad enough, heart breaking enough to see the way that efforts to overturn the 2020 election have upended the lives of election workers like ruby freeman and her daughter, but it really does look like just the beginning. i mean, yeah, threatening and harassing individual election workers has really been working for them. imagine how well it will work when they take over the entire election machinery top to tail to do with it what they will. superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. 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overall, the law is still in place, still in effect. abortion is still banned in texas. the five republican-appointed justices in the majority today let it stand. and remember the weird way this ban works. texas didn't just up and declare abortion is a crime and send out the cops to arrest people for it. they made this weird new law that's designed to evade roe v wade, it's designed to get around the fact that abortion is a constitutionally protected right and the way they do it, instead of sending out cops to arrest people for having an abortion, they have a weird scheme where random citizens are invited to bring lawsuits against someone involved in an abortion and if that lawsuit prevails, if they can prove someone provided an abortion or worked as a receptionist and checked someone in at a clinic for an abortion, or you loaned your sister money for an abortion, if you were the uber driver or bus driver who dropped her off at the clinic, then you, the implicated person who assisted in the abortion, you have to personally pay $10,000 to the person who sued you, plus there are legal fees. this is the scheme by which texas's new abortion ban is enforced. it is admittedly bizarre, has the effect of putting amateur stalkers on the trail of every woman in texas who seems she may have been pregnant in the past and now is not, but justice thomas, amy berrett, all okayed that today so it stays in place. justice john roberts, chief justice, is a lot of things but one of the things is a clear and direct writer. he doesn't exaggerate, doesn't use hyperbole which for many people made it alarming when he wrote today, in dissent, again, on the losing side of this ruling, in the minority, but described what the court did today as such. texas has passed a law banning abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. that law is contrary to the decision of roe v wade and planned parent hood versus casey. it's had the effect of denying the exercise of what we have held is a right under the constitution. texas employed an array of strategy to conceal from judicial review. the clear purpose and actual effect of the ban has been to nullify this court's rulings. it is, however a basic principle that the u.s. constitution is the fundamental and paramount law of the nation and the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is. indeed, if the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the united states and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery. the nature of the federal right infringed does not matter. it is the role of the supreme court in our constitutional system that is at stake. that was chief justice john roberts today, mr. under statement, nevertheless saying that letting texas ban abortion this way means state can just over rule the constitution now. states can overrule the federal court. supreme court doesn't have to be obeyed anymore, not if this is how it's going to go from her on out. chief justice mayore was on the side of the argument, as well and said, quote, the court should have put an end to this madness months ago before the ban first went into effect. it fails to do so then, fails again today. the court then betrays not only the citizens of justice but our constitutional system of government. the court essentially invites other states to define texas's model for annulling civil rights. it invokes john calhoun who insisted states have the right to veto any federal law of which they disagree. the nation fought, she says, a civil war over that proposition. this choice to shrink from texas's challenge to supremacy will have far-reaching repercussions. i doubt the court, let alone the country is prepared for them. at surface level, this was a sort of complicated abortion-related ruling today from the supreme court, but the bottom line here is that texas has successfully found a way to ban abortion. few questions. does this open the door for every other republican-controlled state to ban abortion in the same way, using a copy cat law? when justice is senate mayore and john roberts said they can not just end abortion rights but any constitutional right they don't like, does this really mean, i mean, under this supreme court precedent, could a blue state tired of gun violence, put a $10,000 bounty on somebody for selling an ar-15, sure, there's constitutional right to bear arms, but they there was constitutional right to get an abortion in texas too but texas took care of that too with this $10,000 bounty scheme. couldn't you do that with guns too? could a state like texas next say, not only do they not like a federal right to abortion, they don't like contraception. it's sinful. so now, they put a $10,000 bounty on anybody who sells condoms or birth control pills. or freedom of speech, sure, there's a federally protected right to freedom of speech, says so in the constitution, courts have upheld that but in x state, how about a $10,000 bounty on someone who says something against jesus christ. $10,000 bounty if you catch someone saying something blasphemous. yeah, there's a federal right to free speech, but states can get around that federal right problem now. that's something chief justice mayore and roberts screamed today, are they right? hold that thought. today, are they right? hold that thought. because as a fiduciary, it's our responsibility to always put clients first. 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yes. here's the part where i want you to pay attention to the wisdom of senator ted cruz of texas. he tells nbc news this week that suspending the filibuster in this manner creates a, quote, disturbing precedent, as it, quote, opens the door for democrats to try to do that in the future on progressive priorities. ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. correct, sir. there are all sorts of exceptions to the filibuster rule. it's already carved out and can't be used for budget bills, for judicial nominees, for executive branch nominees, for the war powers resolution, for the congressional review act, for certain parts of trade agreements. now newly as of this week you also can't use the filibuster to block raising the debt ceiling. why, again, are we not bypassing the filibuster for voting rights? two bills that would guarantee protections for voting rights are stalled in the senate right now for want of 60 votes because the republicans are filibustering it. why don't the democrats bypass the filibuster for those, too? this is not a rhetorical question. this is very tactical question. you just did it on the debt ceiling. why wouldn't you do it to protect democracy? watch this space. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. to support a strong immune system if you' your body needs a, keep lo routine.you are. centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc* season after season. ace your immune support with centrum. now with a new look! ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ feel stuck with student loan debt? 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