NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — She claims she became the focus of a NewsChannel 5 investigation because it was easier than having her killed.
That's the latest bizarre claim from Gabrielle Hanson, the former Franklin mayoral candidate who has now applied to become city manager in Millersville, Tennessee.
"I don't think anybody has been as persecuted — outside of I heard of a guy in Oklahoma and maybe Donald Trump," Hanson said in a recent interview for the Counter Culture Mom podcast.
Host Tina Griffin began the interview with the woman she described as "an award-winning Realtor and former elected official."
Watch me talk through this story in the player above.
"She was ultimately attacked by Channel 5's Phil Williams because she was over the target of corruption, and they wanted to stop short of killing her to eliminate her and ultimately silence her," Griffin told her audience.
Throughout the 30-minute interview, the former Franklin alderman and candidate for mayor portrayed herself as a victim.
There was no mention of the social media photos she lifted of a group of out-of-state women she claimed were her supporters, her fabrications about having warned police who came to her home of a premonition before the Covenant School shooting or her association with a group of white supremacists.
Hanson's new claim: she was on to a money laundering and child trafficking network involving some powerful individuals.
"And it was like, stop short of killing this girl. We have to shut her up and destroy her," she told Griffin.
And that's apparently where, according to Gabrielle Hanson, NewsChannel 5 comes in.
"When it came to me," Hanson said, "Channel 5 was paid a large sum of money by two different groups: a high-ranking elected official from Williamson County and a group called Southern Poverty Law Center."
Griffin responded, "Ohhhh."
It's just not true.
Hanson continued, "The main organization is also funneling children. It is a multibillion-dollar industry, and we are really at ground zero in the United States for that trafficking."
The one-time aspiring politician claimed she had uncovered a child trafficking network that stretches from Maricopa County, Arizona, back here to Middle Tennessee, involving some of the state's most powerful people.
"There are judges. There are tax officials. There are elected officials who have been in office a very long time, who would be considered conservative."
So how are these powerful people smuggling children from Arizona to Tennessee?
Hanson answered, "By waterways -- we have a perfect waterway with the Tennessee River — and by private plane. And I'm sure there's some by car, as well."
Which made us wonder: How do you travel from Arizona using the Tennessee River? And where is she getting this stuff?
Hanson pointed to a video with conspiracy theorist Shawn Taylor as evidence. Taylor is now assistant police chief in Millersville, where Hanson wants to be the city manager.
And if that all sounds crazy to you, podcaster Tina Griffin had nothing but praise.
"Jewel on your crown, woman," Griffin told Hanson, "one day when you see the Lord. But woe to those who try to kill, steal and destroy our children. Woe to those."
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