The producer of a documentary that falsely accused a metro Atlanta man of committing election fraud during the 2020 election has issued an apology saying his depiction was based on “inaccurate information.”
The statement by right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza came months after Salem Media Group issued a similar apology to Mark Andrews about “2000 Mules,” the 2022 film that purported to expose illegal ballot harvesting in Georgia and other swing states.
“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,” D’Souza wrote on his website over the weekend.
The film showed Andrews — face blurred — depositing five ballots in a drop box before the 2020 presidential election. D’Souza, the film’s narrator, falsely claimed viewers were seeing “a crime” and fraudulent votes.
But a 2022 investigation by the Georgia secretary of state’s office found the ballots were not fraudulent. Andrews was delivering ballots for himself and members of his family, which is not illegal. Investigators also debunked other Georgia claims made in the film.
Andrews filed a still-pending defamation lawsuit against Salem and the film’s producers in 2022 saying he did nothing wrong.
The allegations in “2000 Mules,” which was watched by more than a million people in the first weeks after it was released, are among several claims hailed by election deniers as proof of fraud but didn’t hold up under scrutiny.
That includes allegations of widespread fraud captured on video at State Farm Arena, counterfeit ballots and other claims.
D’Souza pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws in 2014. President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2018.
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