2000 Mules
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
2000 Mules is a 2022 American political film by Dinesh D'Souza. It claims Democrat-aligned individuals, or "mules," were paid by unnamed nonprofit organizations to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.
The film is based on "faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data" provided by True the Vote.[2] D'Souza asserted as many as 400,000 ballots may have been involved, "more than enough to tip the balance in the 2020 presidential election," though True the Vote did not allege any of the ballots were illegal.[3]
Content and methodology
Analysis conducted by the Associated Press (AP) found the film was "based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data".[2][4] The AP explained that in various swing counties across the five states, True the Vote used phone pings to cellphone towers to identify individuals who had passed near ballot drop boxes and various unnamed nonprofit organizations multiple times per day, concluding that such people were paid mules for ballot collection and deposits. Experts said such geolocation was not accurate enough to distinguish alleged mules from many other people who might walk or drive by a ballot box or nonprofit during the course of a day, such as delivery drivers, postal workers and cab drivers. True the Vote asserted it had conducted "pattern of life" filtering of such people prior to the election season, though the AP noted limitations of that approach. The film also asserted that some of the geolocated alleged mules were also present at what it called "antifa riots" in Atlanta during the George Floyd protests in summer 2020, though AP explained that the geolocation data also could not reliably determine why people were present at that event; they could have been peaceful protesters, police or firefighters responding to the protests, or business owners in the area.
To illustrate the use of phone geolocation technology, in the film D'Souza speaks with Gregg Phillips, who alleged he used it to identify two suspects in an Atlanta homicide cold case, providing his analysis to the FBI, which he and D'Souza suggest resulted in arrests of the suspects. The homicide was not a cold case, and both suspects were arrested by state rather than federal officials, with no indication phone geolocation played a role. Phillips had previously claimed without evidence that as many as five million ballots had been illegally cast by non-citizens in the 2016 elections.[4]
The film likened its geolocation methodology to that used by federal investigators to identify individuals inside the U.S. Capitol building during the January 6 attack, showing an image of individuals at the centers of large circles of uncertainty, fully within the building, to show the individuals were there. Similar large circles of uncertainly would be insufficient to show an individual was at, rather than near, a ballot drop box.[5]
The film showed surveillance video of individuals allegedly depositing multiple ballots into drop boxes, though there was no way to match them with the geolocation data, and most states allow such ballot collection on behalf of family members and household members. In one segment, Phillips narrates that a woman deposited "a small stack" of ballots into a drop box, though it was not actually clear there was more than one ballot. The deposit allegedly occurred at 1am, after which the woman removed latex gloves and threw them away, which the film characterizes as suspicious. The incident occurred on January 5, 2021, during Georgia's runoff election, rather than during the 2020 presidential election. The film alleged that some individuals captured in surveillance videos were wearing gloves to avoid leaving their fingerprints on ballots, though the videos were from the fall and winter of 2020, when people were taking precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][2]
Phillips narrates a surveillance video in which a man on a bicycle rides up to a drop box and deposits his ballot. Phillips characterizes the man as "sort of frustrated as he starts to leave," though there was no obvious evidence of frustration, supposedly because the man had forgotten to photograph himself depositing the ballot. Phillips speculated, "they had started requiring the mules, apparently, to take pictures of the stuffing of the ballots. It appears that that's how they get paid." The man later took a photo of his bicycle next to the drop box, leading Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote to ask, "If you're just casting your own ballot, what reason in the world would you have to come back and take a picture of the box?" Elections officials had encouraged voters to share their experiences on social media to boost turnout; images posted on social media included people depositing ballots at that particular drop box.[5]
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office investigated a surveillance video from the film showing a man depositing five ballots into a drop box, finding he had lawfully deposited ballots for himself and his family.[6]
2000 Mules does not inform viewers that, even if the events it depicts occurred, every absentee ballot deposited in a drop box must be inside an envelope sent to each registered voter that includes the voter's registration information, signature and a barcode for verification. Ballots lacking the envelope are rejected.[6]
The AP reported that the film's assertion that True the Vote identified 1,155 paid mules in Philadelphia alone was false. The film presented a single anonymous witness who said she saw people picking up what she "assumed" to be payments for ballot collection in Arizona; no evidence of payments was presented in any of the other four states.[2] The film presents no evidence that ballots were collected from a nonprofit to be deposited in drop boxes.[5]
The last third of the film consists of a panel discussion among several conservative and right-wing pundits, all of whom have shows with Salem Media Group, which caters to a conservative audience and served as an executive producer of the film.[5]
True the Vote did not cooperate with investigations by Georgia election officials, refusing to disclose the names of people who allegedly collected ballots. The State Election Board issued subpoenas to the organization in April 2022, seeking documents, recordings and names of individuals involved.[6] The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) examined the True the Vote allegations in fall 2021 but did not find sufficient evidence to open an investigation.[7]
Cast
Not including people only appearing in archive footage.
- Dinesh D'Souza, director, host and narrator
- Debbie D'Souza
- True the Vote: Catherine Engelbrecht, Gregg Phillips
- Salem Radio Network hosts: Dennis Prager, Sebastian Gorka, Larry Elder, Eric Metaxas, Charlie Kirk
- The Heritage Foundation: Hans von Spakovsky
- Capital Research Center: Scott Walter
Reception
Former president Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, praised the film as exposing "great election fraud" and held a screening of the film at his Mar-a-Lago resort.[2][1] D'Souza criticized Fox News and Newsmax for not promoting the film, claiming that Fox News' Tucker Carlson had instructed Catherine Engelbrecht not to mention the film during his interview with her and that Newsmax had originally booked an interview with D'Souza to discuss the film but this was then cancelled.[8]
Media outlets such as PolitiFact, the Associated Press, and The Washington Post criticized the film for containing factual errors and omissions, making implausible claims, and promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the supposed theft of the 2020 presidential election. The Post characterized the film as presenting "the least convincing election-fraud theory yet".[3][2][4][5][6][8]
See also
- 537 Votes
- 2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election
- Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election
- Ballot tracking in the United States
- Big lie#Trump's false claim of a stolen election
- Blue shift (politics)
- Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
- Geo-fence
- Geo-fence warrant
- Michael Gableman#Investigation into 2020 election results
- Postal voting in the 2020 United States elections
- Recount (film)
- Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election
- Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
- List of controversial elections#United States
References
- ^ a b Palmer, Ewan (May 5, 2022). "Donald Trump holds screening of "2,000 Mules" documentary at Mar-a-Lago". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
- ^ a b c d e f Swenson, Ali (May 3, 2022). "FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot 'mules". Associated Press.
Praised by former President Donald Trump as exposing "great election fraud," the movie, called "2000 Mules," paints an ominous picture suggesting Democrat-aligned ballot "mules" were supposedly paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But that's based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data, which is not precise enough to confirm that somebody deposited a ballot into a drop box, according to experts.
- ^ a b Bill McCarthy; Amy Sherman (May 4, 2022). "The faulty premise of the '2,000 mules' trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election". PolitiFact.
- ^ a b c d Bump, Philip (April 29, 2022). "Analysis | The dishonest pivot at the heart of the new voter-fraud conspiracy". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-04-30.
- ^ a b c d e Bump, Philip (May 11, 2022). "'2000 Mules' offers the least convincing election-fraud theory yet". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b c d Niesse, Mark (May 10, 2022). "What '2000 Mules' leaves out of ballot harvesting claims". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- ^ Niesse, Mark; Bluestein, Greg (October 21, 2021). "GBI chief: Not enough evidence to pursue GOP's ballot fraud claim". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ISSN 1539-7459. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- ^ a b Baragona, Justin (May 9, 2022). "Dinesh D'Souza Claims Tucker Carlson and Newsmax Won't Promote His Batshit Movie". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved May 12, 2022.