Donald Trump Often Used This Well-Known Conspiracy Theory Website That Just Filed for Bankruptcy

The well-known far-right blog and widely circulated conspiracy theory website, the Gateway Pundit, said on Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection in order to shield itself from lawsuits about its reporting on the 2020 election. The proprietor of the publication, Jim Hoft, blamed the 'progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet' in a statement posted on its website. 

As reported by HuffPost, the website has been disseminating myths and conspiracy theories about anything from vaccinations to election fraud for the last 20 years. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers, have filed the most prominent complaint against the website. As per the New York Times, they filed lawsuits in St. Louis Circuit Court in 2021 against the Gateway Pundit, Hoft, his twin brother and website writer, Joe Hoft, for mental distress and slander. The website had allegedly made up an untrue claim that the mother-daughter duo had deliberately tampered with the vote totals to favor President Joe Biden.

Before the election year, the Gateway Pundit had over 1.7 million unique readers (as of January 2020). According to Comscore statistics, that number had decreased by almost 54% to 813,000 users in January of this year. TGP disputed the ComScore figures, claiming that the website now employs an internal StatCounter that logged 24 million visitors in January 2020 and 55 million in January 2024, and no longer shares its traffic data with ComScore. Hoft's assertion adds, "This is not an admission of fault or culpability. This is a common tool for reorganization and to consolidate litigation when attacks are coming from all sides. It allows TGP to consolidate this lawfare in one court for ultimate resolution."

In addition, Eric Coomer, a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems, has filed a lawsuit in Colorado against the Gateway Pundit, saying the publication defamed him by accusing him of rigging the election against Trump. As reported by The Guardian, following the publication of articles by the Gateway Pundit, election offices have been inundated with harassing communications, many of which include derogatory and threatening language directed at staff members. Someone wrote a letter to the county elections officer, "Election stealing piece of shit – get cancer."

Earlier last month, a Colorado appeals court decided that Coomer's broad lawsuit against Gateway Pundit and several other well-known defendants may go to trial. According to the parent company of Gateway Pundit's bankruptcy petition, the firm's assets range from $500,001 to $1 million, while its liabilities are between $100,001 to $500,000, placing it in a precarious position should it be awarded or held liable for significant damages in a defamation trial, such as the one involving Coomer. 

As per CNN, Coomer's lawyer, Charlie Cain, stated, "The Gateway Pundit is falling in the footsteps of Rudy Giuliani in seeking protection from the bankruptcy court… Rather than ‘liberal lawfare attacks." For context, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy last year, and at the same time, a federal court ordered him to start paying the $148 million he owes two former Georgia election workers for spreading false information.