AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The person who created the Gateway Pundit, which is known for spreading conspiracy theories, said on Wednesday that the company had declared bankruptcy.
Jim Hoft published a message on the website that read, “TGP Communications, the parent company of The Gateway Pundit, recently made the decision to seek protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Florida as a result of the progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet.”
Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, sued the Gateway Pundit in December of 2021, alleging that Jim and Joe Hoft, twin brothers, behind the conspiracy theory site engaged in “a campaign of lies” that “instigated a deluge of intimidation, harassment, and threats that has forced them to change their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and fear for their physical safety.
The Gateway Pundit saw its traffic increase during the 2020 presidential election as it published many stories echoing then-President Donald Trump’s widely discredited claims of election fraud that led to the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. In January 2020, the Gateway Pundit had about 1.7 million unique readers. In January of this year, that number dropped by dropped about 54 percent to 813,000 users, according to Comscore data.
Hoft’s statement added, “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.
Freeman and Moss also sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation after he accused them of working to steal the 2020 election from Trump. Giuliani was ordered ordered in December of 2023 to pay Freeman and Moss about $148 million in damages for the years of harassment and abuse they suffered as a result of the unfounded allegations he pushed. Giuliani has since appealed the verdict and lost.
