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Absolute Proof

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Absolute Proof
Title card
Directed byMike Lindell
Produced by
  • Mike Lindell
  • Brannon Howse
  • Mary Fanning[1]
Starring
  • Mike Lindell
  • Brannon Howse
  • Mary Fanning
  • Phil Waldron
  • Matthew DePerno
Distributed byOne America News Network
Release date
  • February 5, 2021 (2021-02-05)
Running time
120 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Absolute Proof is a 2021 political film directed by and starring Mike Lindell. It was distributed by One America News Network and promotes the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election instead of Joe Biden. The documentary was removed by video hosting sites YouTube and Vimeo for violating their community standards.

Absolute Proof won two awards: the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture and the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor (for Lindell). Lindell has since released three sequels: Scientific Proof, Absolute Interference, and Absolutely 9-0.[2]

Premise

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See also: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

In the documentary, Lindell hosts numerous cybersecurity experts and anonymous persons whose testimonies allegedly support his claim that Chinese and Iranian hackers hacked into voting machines in order to influence the results of the election in favour of Biden.[3]

Participants

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Lindell in December 2020

Background

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On November 7, 2020, Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.[6][7] Alleging that voter fraud switched several million votes for Joe Biden, Trump's campaign and Republican allies challenged the election results. At least 63 lawsuits were filed, although none were successful.[8][9] Trump and his allies unsuccessfully urged officials in states that Biden won to disqualify some ballots and to challenge vote certification processes.[10] Even after Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, Trump and others, including Lindell, continued to maintain that Trump had actually won the election.[11]

Release

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On February 5, 2021, One America News Network live streamed the film on its website. Introduced with a disclaimer,[12] the film shortly afterward went viral. Several hours after the live stream, YouTube and Vimeo removed all recordings of the film from their sites, citing violations of their community standards,[13] but not before it had tens of thousands of views.[14]

Reception

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The film was widely criticized by fact-checkers as being full of "debunked, unsubstantial claims."[15][3] Mainstream news outlets such as The New York Times disputed its claims as well.[5]

Lindell's staff confirmed in August 2021 that the data shown in the film was given to Lindell by Dennis L. Montgomery, a software designer with a documented history of fraud.[16]

Awards

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In April 2021, Absolute Proof received two Golden Raspberry Awards, which parody traditional awards by honoring a year's worst films.[17]

Year Association Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2020 Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Picture Mary Fanning, Brannon Howse and Mike Lindell Won [18]
Worst Actor Mike Lindell Won

Sequels

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Over the next several months, Lindell released Scientific Proof, an hour-long interview with Douglas G. Frank; Absolute Interference, a two-hour-long documentary starring Michael Flynn, which The Dispatch fact check says "recycles many familiar voter fraud claims that lack evidence";[19] and Absolutely 9-0, a 26-minute-long interview with an anonymous "white hat hacker" who purported to show packet captures from voting machines used in the 2020 election. In reality, the data presented was a hex-encoded version of publicly available voter registration data from Pennsylvania.[2][20]

"Cyber Symposium"

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On August 10, 11, and 12, 2021, Lindell hosted a "cyber symposium" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which he promised would produce "irrefutable evidence" for his claims that the election had been stolen by foreign hackers. However, the cyber expert he had hired to analyze his evidence said he could not confirm that claim.[21] Lindell promised to make the purported packet captures available to attendees and offered a $5 million "bounty" to any attendee who could prove that they did not originate from the 2020 election.[22] Just as the symposium was about to start on August 10, Lindell's website, LindellTV, was inoperative for about an hour – a problem Lindell says, without providing proof, was the result of a hack.[23] Lindell had predicted that because of the irrefutable evidence his symposium would reveal, Trump would be recognized as the true winner of the 2020 election and reinstated as president on August 13, the day after his symposium ended. When that did not occur, he moved the predicted date of Trump's reinstatement to September 13, which also did not result in Trump being reinstated.[24] The packet captures were never presented at the symposium and one attendee described Lindell's supposed evidence as "random garbage that wastes our time".[25] Renowned election cybersecurity expert Harri Hursti, who attended the symposium, characterized the data presented as "a big fat nothing and a distraction".[25] In April 2023, an arbitration panel unanimously awarded the $5 million "bounty" to cybersecurity expert Robert Zeidman, agreeing with Zeidman's assertion that Lindell had not produced any valid data from the 2020 election.[26] Lindell subsequently refused to pay, resulting in Zeidman suing Lindell in an attempt to recover the award.[27][28]

References

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  1. ^ a b Tolan, Casey; Devine, Curt; Griffin, Drew (August 5, 2021). "MyPillow magnate Mike Lindell's latest election conspiracy theory is his most bizarre yet". CNN. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Himmelman, Khaya (14 June 2021). "Fact Checking 'Absolutely 9-0,' the Latest Documentary From Mike Lindell". factcheck.thedispatch.com. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  3. ^ a b "MyPillow CEO's Video Rehashes Debunked Election Fraud Claims". FactCheck.org. February 5, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  4. ^ Himmelman, Khaya (February 16, 2021). "Assessing the Various Claims in Mike Lindell's 'Absolute Proof'". The Dispatch. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Browning, Kellen; Hsu, Tiffany (February 5, 2021). "Three false claims about the election made in Mike Lindell's new film". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  6. ^ Collinson, Stephen; Reston, Maeve (November 7, 2020). "Biden defeats Trump in an election he made about character of the nation and the President". CNN. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  7. ^ Lemire, Jonathan; Miller, Zeke; Weissert, Will (November 8, 2020). "Biden defeats Trump for White House, says 'time to heal'". Associated Press. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  8. ^ Cummings, William; Joey Garrison and Jim Sergent (January 6, 2021). "By the numbers: President Donald Trump's failed efforts to overturn the election". USA Today. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Liptak, Adam (December 8, 2020). "Supreme Court Rejects Republican Challenge to Pennsylvania Vote". The New York Times.
  10. ^ Fahrenthold, David A.; Reinhard, Beth; Viebeck, Elise; Brown, Emma (November 20, 2020). "Trump's escalating attacks put pressure on vote certification process". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  11. ^ Gerhart, Ann (March 11, 2021). "Election results under attack: Here are the facts". The Washington Post. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  12. ^ Evon, Dan (February 8, 2021). "Did Mike Lindell's 'Absolute Proof' Vid on Election Fraud Run with Disclaimer Labeling Content as Opinion?". Snopes. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  13. ^ Blake, Andrew (February 6, 2021). "Mike Lindell, My Pillow CEO, has conspiratorial pro-Trump film yanked from YouTube, Vimeo". The Washington Times. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  14. ^ Blest, Paul (February 5, 2021). "Mike Lindell's Election Fraud Movie 'Absolute Proof' Has Absolutely No Proof". Vice. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  15. ^ Ford, Dana (February 5, 2021). "Fact Check: Mike Lindell's 'Absolute Proof' Video, Promising To Expose Election Fraud, Relies On False And Unsubstantiated Claims". Lead Stories. Retrieved August 8, 2021.
  16. ^ Benen, Steve (August 13, 2021). "Mike Lindell's unfortunate week gets quite a bit worse". MSNBC.
  17. ^ Haring, Bruce (April 24, 2021). "41st Annual Razzie Awards Names Pillow Guy's 'Absolute Proof' As Best Of The Worst". Deadline. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  18. ^ Colbert, Claire (April 24, 2021). "Rudy Giuliani and the MyPillow Guy among 'winners' in 41st Annual Razzie Awards for worst in cinema". CNN. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  19. ^ Himmelman, Khaya (May 10, 2021). "Fact Checking Mike Lindell's 'Absolute Interference' Video". The Dispatch. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  20. ^ "Analysis | Mike Lindell's 'fraud' allegations are even more ridiculous than you might think". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  21. ^ Meyer, Ken (August 12, 2021). "SHOCKER! Mike Lindell's Own Cyber Expert Announces His Election Fraud Conspiracies Are Baseless". Mediaite. MSN. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  22. ^ Towey, Grace Dean, Hannah. "Mike Lindell is offering $5 million to anyone who can disprove his allegations of voter fraud — if they show up to his cyber symposium". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Kilander, Gustaf (August 10, 2021). "My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell delays start of 'cyber symposium' claiming he has been hacked". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2021-08-10. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
  24. ^ Kafer, Krista (August 19, 2021). "Kafer: Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters drank the snake oil peddled by Mike Lindell". Denver Post. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  25. ^ a b Dean, Zahra Tayeb, Grace. "Mike Lindell said his cyber symposium would prove voter fraud. One cyber expert said it was just full of 'random garbage that wastes our time.'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ Vigdor, Neil (2023-04-20). "'Prove Mike Wrong' for $5 Million, Lindell Pitched. Now He's Told to Pay Up". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
  27. ^ Murray, Sara (2023-05-19). "Cyber expert awarded $5 million from Mike Lindell asks court to compel MyPillow CEO to pay up | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
  28. ^ "Winner of Mike Lindell's $5M contest never got his money. Now he's taking Lindell to court. - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
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