Alex Kaplan at MMFA:
An online show host who is a prominent supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory has been organizing an effort to use the courts to block mandates on masks and vaccines around the country. The effort has involved the widow of former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), and it has been promoted by one of the biggest financial backers of the Arizona election “audit.”
The QAnon influencer -- Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman, known online as “Tore” -- originally gained prominence in the far-right by appearing in a 2020 conspiracy theory film called Shadowgate (created by a QAnon-supporting former Infowars personality). She was later cited as a witness before the Supreme Court by Sidney Powell as part of Powell’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and in late September she apparently attended a meeting involving former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Tore has also previously been convicted of violating consumer protection laws in North Dakota, and she has made a significant amount of money streaming on Twitch.
Since September, Tore has turned her attention to coronavirus-prevention mandates. In early September, she filed a lawsuit against the Ohio school district her daughter attends to block a mask mandate. And later that month, she filed a request for a writ of mandamus before the Ohio Supreme Court “asking judges to block Gov. Mike DeWine or any of his agents from requiring anyone in the state to take a vaccine, provide a DNA sample, wear a medical device like a mask or have their temperatures taken.”
On her show (and in her filing), Tore has claimed that the legal justification for her case is that the Ohio Constitution has provisions that bar anyone from “forc[ing] us to take any medication” or to “participate in any health care system. That means data collection, data information, temperature taking, masks.” (Her filing also includes an “exhibit Q,” potentially a reference to QAnon.)
To help her legal case, Tore has urged people in the state to send her affidavits claiming they have also been harmed under this supposed legal violation. In an Ohio Telegram group she created, Tore urged members to send her affidavits for her case, including posting an affidavit template for them to use.
