More than two years after the widely debunked film “2000 Mules” poured gasoline on right-wing conspiracy theories about election fraud, the documentary’s writer and director, Dinesh D’Souza, has acknowledged that its findings were based on a faulty analysis.

D’Souza said in a statement on his website that the analysis used in the film, which claimed to depict a vast ring of “mules” illegally gathering large numbers of ballots and surreptitiously placing them in drop boxes, was incorrect.

The film’s premise was based on matching surveillance videos from drop-box locations with geolocated cellphone data that appeared to show repeated trips to areas near drop boxes during the 2020 election.

“We recently learned that surveillance videos used in the film may not have actually been correlated with the geolocation data,” D’Souza, who is facing a lawsuit over the documentary, said in the statement, which he released Nov. 26.

“2000 Mules” Was Quickly Debunked, Gained More Than 1 Million Views

Despite being swiftly debunked by both Republican and Democratic election officials, the film garnered more than 1 million views online in less than two weeks after its release in 2022 and eventually grossed more than $1.4 million. A glitzy premiere at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, drew Donald Trump, the once and future president, as well as Republican luminaries and influential figures in the movement to discredit the 2020 election.

The surveillance videos used in the film were obtained by True the Vote, a right-wing election organization that was a partner in producing the film. In a statement on its website Monday, the group said the film’s central premise “remains accurate” despite the apology.

The admission from D’Souza follows years of defiance: He had long argued that the evidence in his film was sound even as election experts at the state and local levels declared the conclusions unfounded. In 2022, the Republican attorney general of Arizona asked the FBI to investigate True the Vote for ignoring requests to share the documentary’s evidence.

The film helped demonize drop boxes as a fraudulent method of voting in the eyes of many Republicans.

Numerous Republican legislatures, including in battleground states like Georgia, sought to either ban or significantly restrict the use of drop boxes after the 2020 election. Lawsuits targeting drop boxes became commonplace. The right-leaning state Supreme Court in Wisconsin banned most drop boxes for the state’s 2022 elections, though that decision was reversed for this year’s contests.

In the 2022 midterm elections, armed right-wing activists in Arizona patrolled the areas around drop boxes. An organizer of the effort said she had been inspired by a trailer for “2000 Mules.” During this year’s elections, two drop boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire, potentially destroying hundreds of ballots.

In his statement, D’Souza directly apologized to Mark Andrews, a Georgia voter featured in the film who sued its producers in 2022 for defamation.

The film shows a clip of Andrews, with his face blurred out, placing ballots into a drop box near Atlanta, along with voice-over commentary by D’Souza calling the action “a crime” and adding, “These are fraudulent votes.” (A state investigation found that Andrews had lawfully cast ballots for himself and his family members, who all lived at the same address.)

Although Andrews’ face was blurred in the movie, unblurred versions of the same video were used to promote the documentary by a variety of conservative news outlets. Those outlets included Tucker Carlson’s former show on Fox News and a show hosted by Charlie Kirk, a founder of Turning Point USA, and produced by Salem Media Group, which was a co-producer of “2000 Mules.”

“I owe this individual, Mark Andrews, an apology,” D’Souza said. “I now understand that the surveillance videos used in the film were characterized on the basis of inaccurate information provided to me and my team. If I had known then that the videos were not linked to geolocation data, I would have clarified this and produced and edited the film differently.”

Salem Media Group Issues Apology

In May, Salem Media Group issued a statement apologizing to Andrews for harm caused by the film. The organization also said that it had taken “2000 Mules” off its platforms and that it would no longer distribute the film and an accompanying book.

“It was never our intent that the publication of the ‘2000 Mules’ film and book would harm Mr. Andrews,” the group said at the time.

The lawsuit against Salem was dismissed four days after the organization apologized.

Andrews’ lawsuit against D’Souza and True the Vote has continued, with motions for summary judgment expected to be filed next week.

In its statement, True the Vote said that it had no editorial control over the movie, promotional videos and accompanying book, and that Andrews had not been part of the data analysis it performed. The organization said that it had told D’Souza that Andrews was not a part of the study but that “despite this, D’Souza’s team included a blurred video of this individual in their ‘2000 Mules’ movie and book productions.”

In his statement, D’Souza said he was apologizing “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.”

Lawyers for Andrews declined to comment.

Despite his apology, D’Souza insisted in his statement that “the underlying premise of the film holds true.”

He did not provide specific evidence to bolster that claim.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nick Corasaniti and Ken Bensinger
c. 2024 The New York Times Company