Far-Right Provocateur Dinesh D’Souza Admits Inaccuracies in His Controversial Film ‘2,000 Mules’
- The 2022 movie claims “mules,” paid or unpaid political operatives placed ballots in multiple vote drop boxes in battleground states, which were used to make voting easier during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conservative political commentator and far-right provocateur Dinesh Dinesh D’Souza has acknowledged that some of the revelations made in his film “2,000 Mules” are based on inaccurate data. Released in 2022, the film claims “mules,” paid or unpaid political operatives placed ballots in multiple vote drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which were used to make voting easier during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is said to be based on a database of 10 trillion cell phone pings provided by the election integrity group True the Vote.
Though the film was widely debunked by law enforcement officials and the media, it was an immediate MAGA smash hit. It premiered at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. More than a million people watched “2,000 Mules” in just the first two weeks after its release in May 2022, and the film grossed over $10 million. Its unfounded allegations became an article of faith for an untold number of Americans convinced that the election had been stolen.
Five months later, in October 2022, conservative media company Salem Media Group, which co-produced and released the film, launched a companion book. However, that version of the book was “abruptly recalled after already reaching store shelves and replaced with a version that omitted multiple significant allegations,” NPR reported at the time.
D’Souza’s admission comes amidst a lawsuit filed against him by Mark Andrews of Georgia, who was falsely depicted in the film of committing election fraud. In a statement posted on his website and to X, D’Souza apologized to Andrews. “I make this apology not under the terms of a settlement agreement or other duress, but because it is the right thing to do, given what we have now learned,” he wrote. “While I do not believe Mr. Andrews was ever identified by the film or book, I am sorry for any harm he believes he and his family has suffered as a result of ‘2000 Mules.’”
In the film, Andrews was featured on video with his face blurred while depositing his ballot, along with those belonging to his family, into a drop box in what the film purported was a “mule” operation. “What you are seeing is a crime,” a voiceover from D’Souza declared. “These are fraudulent votes.” However, although Andrews’ face is “blurred in the images, the film’s producers used un-blurred versions of the same video to promote the film on a variety of conservative news outlets,” The New York Times reported.
Earlier this year, the Salem Media Group, issued an apology to Andrews, noting that it was “never our intent that the publication of the ‘2000 Mules’ film and book would harm Mr. Andrews.” The group apologized for “the hurt the inclusion of Mr. Andrews’ image in the movie, book, and promotional materials have caused Mr. Andrews and his family.”
Andrews filed the lawsuit in October 2022, after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared him of wrongdoing, and “found he was legally dropping off ballots for members of his family,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at the time. In the lawsuit, Andrews claimed that the allegations in the film “led to violent threats against him and his family.” This has led the family, to feel “intimidated to vote,” and has “changed how they vote because of that fear,” the lawsuit said. “They worry that again they will be baselessly accused of election crimes, and that believers in the ‘mules’ theory may recognize and seek reprisal against them, and that they may face physical harm,” the lawsuit added. It further noted that Andrews, a “Black man who grew up in the American South before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, will never again be able to vote without looking over his shoulder.”
Meanwhile, D’Souza, who’s active on X, has commented on almost every post mentioning his admission. “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” he wrote on a CNN clip of reporter Donnie Sullivan talking to Kaitlan Collins, host of “The Source.” I made an important clarification and correction, based on new information, but the film’s central claim that there was widespread and systematic fraud in the 2020 election is valid, having withstood the most searching scrutiny.”
On conservative activist Ned Ryun’s post about cell phone geolocation data provided by the conservative group True the Vote, D’Souza clarified his stand again. “Nowhere do I say that the geolocation data provided by True the Vote was false. This is the problem with regurgitating false accounts in the media.”
D’Souza, who spent almost four decades in a cycle of provocation and controversy, was issued a presidential pardon during Trump’s first presidency. D’Souza had pleaded guilty in 2014 to a felony conviction of recruiting straw donors who gave $10,000 each to an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012, running against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). He routed the donations through his mistress and her husband. His ex-wife would later accuse him of physical abuse. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman sentenced him to eight months in a “work release center,” five years of probation, a fine of $30,000 and to perform “community service.” He was required to submit to “psychological counseling.”He was prosecuted by the former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara. However, D’Souza gloated on Twitter after his pardon to Bharara. “Wanted to destroy a fellow Indian-American to advance his career. Then he got fired and I got pardoned.”