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2000 Mules

2000 Mules is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Dinesh D'Souza that alleges coordinated illegal ballot harvesting during the 2020 United States presidential election, claiming the activity involved paid operatives depositing large numbers of fraudulent ballots into drop boxes, sufficient to sway results in battleground states.^[1]^[2]
The film presents analysis of cellphone geolocation data obtained by the conservative group True the Vote from data brokers, purporting to track over 2,000 "mules"—individuals who allegedly visited 10 or more ballot drop boxes and five or more nonprofit organizations in a single day, patterns interpreted as evidence of ballot stuffing operations funded by leftist NGOs.^[2]^[3]
Distributed by Salem Media and accompanied by a book adaptation, it gained traction among election integrity advocates and was praised by figures like former President Donald Trump for highlighting vulnerabilities in unsupervised drop box voting.^[4]^[5]
However, the film's evidentiary foundation drew scrutiny for relying on aggregated location pings with limited precision (often accurate only to within 10-100 meters), failing to distinguish legal from illegal actions, and lacking video or testimonial corroboration of actual ballot fraud; True the Vote's related lawsuits, such as in Georgia, were dismissed after the group admitted insufficient evidence to support claims when ordered by courts to produce it.^[3]^[6]
In response to defamation suits, including one from an individual misidentified via surveillance footage, D'Souza conceded in late 2024 that "inaccurate information" had been provided about specific footage, while Salem Media issued a public apology on May 31, 2024, halting promotion and distribution after settling the suit amid acknowledgments of flawed assertions.^[7]^[8]^[9]

Production and Creators

Development and Key Figures

True the Vote, a nonprofit election integrity organization founded by Catherine Engelbrecht, initiated an investigation into potential ballot trafficking following the November 2020 U.S. presidential election, with co-founder Gregg Phillips spearheading the effort to examine patterns of activity around unsecured drop boxes in battleground states.^[10]^[11] The group acquired commercially available geolocation data from brokers tracking smartphone movements via apps, focusing on repeated visits to multiple drop box locations combined with nonprofit offices suspected of coordinating ballot collection.^[12] Filmmaker and conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza collaborated with True the Vote to adapt their investigative findings into a documentary format, serving as director and narrator to highlight the alleged irregularities through interviews, data visualizations, and surveillance correlations.^[13]^[2] The project emphasized True the Vote's quantitative approach to identifying "mules"—individuals purportedly transporting ballots illegally—drawing on Phillips' prior experience in data-driven voter fraud claims dating back to 2016.^[11] The documentary, titled 2000 Mules, premiered on May 7, 2022, distributed initially through streaming platforms like Rumble's Locals amid restrictions from mainstream services, reflecting D'Souza's history of producing politically charged films on election topics.^[14] This partnership between True the Vote's fieldwork and D'Souza's production expertise aimed to substantiate claims of systemic fraud sufficient to influence the election outcome in targeted jurisdictions.^[13]

Funding and Partnerships

The production of 2000 Mules relied on financial support from True the Vote, a Texas-based conservative nonprofit dedicated to monitoring elections and combating perceived irregularities. True the Vote allocated resources for the film's core investigative elements, including the purchase of approximately $2 million in cellphone geolocation data from commercial brokers to analyze movements near ballot drop boxes in select states.^[3]^[6] This expenditure covered pings tracking devices that visited multiple drop-off sites and nonprofit facilities, forming the basis of the film's methodology.^[15] Distribution partnerships centered on Salem Media Group, a conservative-leaning multimedia company, which managed the film's rollout.^[8] Salem facilitated an initial theatrical release in more than 270 locations across the United States beginning in May 2022, alongside streaming and home media options.^[6] True the Vote's prior donor contributions, drawn from individuals and entities aligned with election oversight initiatives, underpinned the broader effort, though specific allocations for the film were not itemized in public filings.^[16]

Content and Core Claims

Allegations of Ballot Stuffing

The documentary 2000 Mules alleges that a network of paid operatives, termed "mules," engaged in widespread illegal ballot harvesting during the 2020 U.S. presidential election by collecting fraudulent or unauthorized ballots from Democratic-aligned nonprofit organizations and depositing them into ballot drop boxes on multiple occasions.^[3]^[17] These activities purportedly violated state laws prohibiting ballot harvesting—defined as the collection and submission of ballots by third parties—in jurisdictions such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where such practices are restricted to immediate family or caregivers unless explicitly authorized.^[3] The film posits this as a coordinated effort facilitated by get-out-the-vote nonprofits, which served as hubs for ballot acquisition before mules transported them to drop boxes, evading standard chain-of-custody requirements for mail-in voting.^[6] A key vulnerability highlighted in the allegations is the proliferation of unsupervised ballot drop boxes, which the documentary claims were rapidly expanded in swing states following rule changes implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[3] Prior to 2020, drop box usage was limited in many areas, but emergency measures allowed for unattended, 24-hour-accessible receptacles without real-time monitoring, allegedly enabling mules to insert multiple ballots undetected during off-hours.^[18] The film argues this shift created systemic opportunities for fraud, as drop boxes lacked the oversight of staffed polling locations or postal services, contrasting with pre-pandemic norms where mail ballots were primarily handled through verified carriers.^[3] The alleged mules were characterized by patterns of repeated visits, with the documentary defining them as individuals who made at least ten trips to drop boxes and five stops at nonprofit offices within specified periods in late October and early November 2020.^[3]^[6] This threshold, according to the film's narrative derived from True the Vote's investigation, distinguished routine voters from systematic harvesters acting under direction from aligned NGOs, which purportedly incentivized the operation through payments or other means to influence outcomes in closely contested states.^[17]

Focus on Swing States and Drop Boxes

The film narrows its examination of alleged ballot irregularities to five pivotal swing states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—where President Donald Trump's 2020 election defeat occurred by margins ranging from 0.3% in Wisconsin (20,682 votes) to 2.4% in Arizona (10,457 votes).^[3]^[19] These states received primary attention due to their decisive role in the Electoral College outcome, with the analysis centering on unsupervised ballot drop boxes as vectors for purported fraud.^[6] True the Vote's data review targeted drop box usage from October 1 to November 3, 2020, claiming to uncover systematic patterns of illegal ballot harvesting through repeated visits by geolocated devices to multiple drop sites and affiliated nonprofit locations.^[3]^[20] The organization asserted that over 2,000 "mules"—individuals allegedly paid to collect and deposit ballots—operated in these states, each making at least 10 drop box stops combined with visits to five or more nonprofits, averaging four or more deposits per circuit, yielding estimates of 242,000 to 400,000 illicit ballots across the targeted areas.^[3]^[19] Illustrative cases highlighted in the film include surveillance videos from drop boxes in Atlanta's State Farm Arena vicinity in Georgia, where footage purportedly captures individuals stuffing multiple ballots into boxes after hours on October 2020 dates.^[20] Similar clips from Detroit, Michigan, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, depict figures depositing handfuls of ballots—sometimes exceeding five per visit—under cover of darkness, interpreted by the filmmakers as evidence of coordinated, non-familial harvesting prohibited under state laws.^[21]^[22] These visuals are presented alongside geolocation pings to argue for mules traversing urban routes to evade detection while servicing drop boxes.^[12]

Methodology and Evidence Presented

Geolocation Data Analysis

The geolocation data analysis in 2000 Mules relied on anonymized cellphone location pings purchased from commercial data brokers, covering movements of approximately 4 to 5 million mobile devices in five battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.^[12] These pings, derived from apps and services that users consented to share location data with, were aggregated without personal identifiers to track spatiotemporal patterns near ballot drop boxes and nonprofit organization facilities during the period surrounding the November 3, 2020, election.^[3] True the Vote applied geofencing techniques to define virtual perimeters around targeted sites, using a radius of 100 feet for drop boxes to capture precise proximity and larger radii—up to several hundred feet—for nonprofit locations to account for campus or building sizes.^[6]^[23] The methodology asserted a 96% accuracy rate for confirming device presence within these geofences, based on the precision of aggregated ping data from multiple sources.^[24] Pings were timestamped to map trajectories, focusing on instances where devices entered and exited geofenced areas multiple times. To identify potential "mules," the analysis filtered for devices exhibiting anomalous patterns: specifically, those registering at least 10 visits to drop boxes and 5 visits to nonprofit sites within a 30-day window bracketing the election.^[25] This threshold was selected to isolate non-random behavior, as legitimate voters or election workers would rarely exhibit such high-frequency, cross-location repetition; for instance, a single individual's lawful voting occurs once, and routine proximity to multiple drop boxes over short intervals defies probabilistic norms of organic movement.^[19] The rationale emphasized causal inference from observed patterns: repeated, coordinated pings linking drop boxes to nonprofits—organizations purportedly involved in ballot collection—suggested deliberate transport of ballots rather than coincidental or incidental travel, as random pedestrian or vehicular traffic would not sustain such targeted itineraries across disparate sites.^[3] This approach, per True the Vote's presentation, leveraged the scale of big data to detect statistically improbable clusters indicative of organized activity, with over 4,000 devices meeting the criteria in the studied states.^[12]

Surveillance Footage and Mule Identification

The film "2000 Mules" incorporates publicly available surveillance footage from ballot drop boxes in urban areas of swing states, including Atlanta, Georgia, to provide visual corroboration for geolocation data patterns suggesting repeated visits by specific individuals.^[20] These videos, obtained from municipal camera systems monitoring drop box locations, depict persons approaching the boxes and inserting multiple ballots—often in handfuls—into the slots, which the filmmakers assert aligns with illegal ballot harvesting activities.^[3] The selection of footage targeted high-traffic drop boxes in cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia, where geolocation analysis had flagged anomalous phone movements between nonprofit organizations and multiple drop sites over the October to November 2020 period.^[6] To identify putative mules, the methodology involves temporal and spatial cross-referencing: geolocation pings, precise to within a few feet and timestamped to minutes, are overlaid with video recordings from the same drop box locations and times to match individual appearances and actions.^[19] This process purportedly "unmasks" the actors by linking anonymous cell phone signals to observable human behavior, such as a single person depositing 5 to 10 ballots per visit, exceeding typical single-voter patterns.^[25] In select cases, video captures of vehicle license plates at the drop boxes enabled further tracing to registered owners, providing additional identifiers beyond geolocation-video alignment.^[13] A prominent example featured is Atlanta-area footage showing an individual associated with 28 separate drop box visits, each involving the insertion of multiple ballots, interspersed with stops at a suspected ballot-harvesting nonprofit.^[26] The filmmakers present this as empirical validation of the geolocation findings, arguing the visual evidence of bulk deposits confirms systemic stuffing rather than lawful family or caregiver submissions, given the volume and frequency.^[27] Such instances are highlighted to demonstrate the methodology's capacity to transition from probabilistic data patterns to concrete, observable events.^[12]

Quantitative Estimates and Thresholds

The film "2000 Mules" posits that patterns of repeated visits to ballot drop boxes—specifically, individuals tracked via geolocation data making 10 or more unique stops at drop boxes and 5 or more visits to associated nonprofit organizations—represent thresholds beyond which legitimate voter behavior becomes statistically improbable.^[28]^[29] These criteria, according to True the Vote's analysis featured in the film, filtered for approximately 2,000 "mules" operating across five swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), with state-specific counts including 242 in Georgia and 138 in Arizona.^[30] To quantify the scale, the film assumes each drop-box visit by a mule involved the deposit of 5 ballots, a conservative estimate derived from observed surveillance footage of individuals handling multiple envelopes.^[31] Given the minimum 10 drop-box visits per mule, this yields at least 50 illegal ballots per individual, or roughly 100,000 across the identified mules; factoring in documented higher visit frequencies (up to dozens per mule in some cases), the total extrapolates to 400,000 illegal votes in the focused states, with broader modeling suggesting potential for 1–2 million when accounting for undetected actors and variations in activity.^[30] These figures, the film argues, establish a causal mechanism for outcome-altering fraud: illegal ballots funneled via unsecured drop boxes—expanded under 2020 pandemic rules—targeted precincts with high Trump support, exceeding Biden's certified margins (e.g., 11,779 votes in Georgia, 20,682 in Arizona, and 154,188 across the five states combined) and thus sufficient to flip results under probabilistic simulations of coordinated stuffing.^[30]^[31]

Reception Among Supporters

Endorsements from Political Figures

Former President Donald Trump endorsed 2000 Mules in May 2022, stating that it exposed "great election fraud" in the 2020 presidential election.^[3]^[32] Trump highlighted the film's geolocation data and surveillance footage as evidence of widespread ballot stuffing, aligning it with his ongoing assertions of election irregularities in key states.^[33] U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene promoted the film by attending a screening and posting on social media about an "amazing night" with patriots viewing 2000 Mules, framing it as validation of voter fraud concerns.^[34] Greene's support contributed to grassroots efforts among Republican activists to organize local viewings and discussions.^[35] State-level Republican leaders, particularly in Texas, actively promoted screenings and integrated the film's claims into party platforms and conventions, with figures like Attorney General Ken Paxton and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick endorsing its narrative on ballot harvesting as a means to address perceived vulnerabilities in drop-box voting. These endorsements sustained debates on 2020 election integrity among GOP bases leading into the 2022 midterms, influencing candidate rhetoric on election security reforms.^[36] Other congressional Republicans, such as Representative Andy Biggs, called for congressional hearings based on the film's allegations, urging investigations into the data presented by True the Vote.^[37] This support from figures across the party helped position 2000 Mules as a rallying point for right-leaning audiences skeptical of official election certifications.

Impact on Public Discourse

The documentary's premiere on Rumble via its Locals platform on May 7, 2022, facilitated broad accessibility to conservative viewers, with reports indicating over 1 million viewings within the first week, marking it as a top-performing political film in recent years.^[38]^[14] This streaming success amplified discussions on election vulnerabilities, particularly regarding unsecured drop boxes, prompting grassroots campaigns for enhanced oversight and audits in swing states.^[39] Among Republican activists and organizations, the film's portrayal of repeated visits to ballot drop boxes by alleged mules galvanized efforts to monitor voting sites during the 2022 midterm elections, including organized stakeouts in at least 10 states and pushes for live-streamed surveillance of drop boxes.^[40]^[41] These activities reflected a broader shift in conservative public discourse toward prioritizing verifiable chain-of-custody for absentee ballots, influencing advocacy for reforms such as timed access restrictions and video monitoring at collection points.^[42] The release sustained and intensified skepticism about 2020 election procedures within GOP-aligned communities, contributing to policy emphases in party platforms on fortifying mail-in voting safeguards, including proposals for bipartisan observers at drop box locations and stricter penalties for unauthorized handling of ballots.^[43] This focus echoed in state-level initiatives post-2022, where enhanced drop box security measures were adopted in response to heightened public demands for transparency in high-volume absentee voting systems.^[44]

Criticisms and Fact-Checks

Methodological and Data Accuracy Issues

The geolocation data employed in 2000 Mules relies on cellphone pings with inherent precision limitations, typically accurate to within 2–10 meters under optimal conditions but prone to errors exceeding 10 meters due to environmental factors, signal interference, and device variability.^[19]^[12] Such inaccuracies prevent definitive confirmation of interactions with specific drop boxes, as pings may only indicate proximity to high-traffic areas like libraries or streets where drop boxes are located, rather than actual ballot deposits.^[3] Experts, including network engineering professor Aaron Striegel, have noted that while cellular data can establish general presence in an area, it stretches credibility to infer precise actions like ballot insertion, given margins of error that can reach hundreds of feet in real-world scenarios.^[3] Anonymized aggregation of location data from third-party apps introduces further errors, as it tracks devices rather than verified individuals, potentially attributing movements to non-voters or multiple users sharing phones.^[12] This method risks overcounting innocuous activities, such as delivery personnel or election volunteers traversing urban routes, without distinguishing voter from non-voter behavior or accounting for legitimate patterns like family members dropping off ballots.^[19]^[3] The film's "pattern of life" filtering, intended to exclude routine commuters, lacks transparent methodology, exacerbating aggregation flaws where device pings could reflect app usage unrelated to physical presence at targeted sites.^[19] The thresholds for designating "mules"—requiring at least 10 visits to drop boxes and 5 to nonprofit locations within defined geofences—appear arbitrary, offering no empirical basis for presuming illegality over legal alternatives like authorized absentee ballot returns by family or caregivers.^[3]^[19] Political scientist Barry Burden has highlighted that such criteria fail to causally link repeated visits to fraudulent acts, as drop boxes in busy locales naturally attract frequent legitimate traffic, including from poll workers or harvesters permitted under state laws.^[3] Without corroborative evidence tying pings to ballot stuffing, these metrics conflate correlation with causation, undermining claims of systematic fraud.^[12]

Responses from Experts and Authorities

Former Attorney General William Barr, in a June 2022 deposition for the House January 6 committee, dismissed the claims in 2000 Mules, stating that the film's evidence of individuals visiting multiple drop boxes and nonprofit offices did not demonstrate fraud, as legal ballot collection by authorized individuals could produce similar patterns, and the alleged scale—potentially tens of thousands of unlawful ballots—was insufficient to alter the 2020 election outcome in key states.^[45]^[46] Barr emphasized that isolated instances of multiple ballot deposits, without proof of invalid votes or chain-of-custody violations, failed to meet evidentiary standards for prosecutable fraud.^[47] An Associated Press review published on May 3, 2022, identified methodological flaws in the film's geolocation analysis, noting that cellphone data precision is often limited to within 100 feet or more, making it unreliable for pinpointing exact drop box interactions or distinguishing legal from illegal activity, and that the film's threshold of five or more visits lacked substantiation as inherently fraudulent.^[3] A subsequent AP survey of state election officials on July 17, 2022, across jurisdictions with expanded drop box use in 2020 found no evidence of widespread irregularities or fraud tied to drop boxes, with officials reporting routine monitoring and minimal verified issues despite high volume—over 41% of absentee ballots returned via drop boxes nationally.^[18] Data experts and statisticians, including those cited in analyses by Reuters and Michigan-based reviewers, have concurred that the film's patterns of repeated visits are explainable by lawful behaviors such as family or group ballot delivery, volunteer coordination at nonprofits, or routine travel near drop sites, with no corroborated breaches in ballot tracking systems or invalid votes linked to the alleged mules.^[19]^[21] These assessments highlight the absence of prosecutable evidence, as geolocation pings alone cannot verify ballot contents, voter eligibility, or intent, requiring additional forensic validation that post-election audits and investigations in states like Georgia and Michigan did not uncover.^[24]

Debunkings of Specific Claims

One prominent claim in 2000 Mules centered on surveillance footage and geolocation data purporting to show an individual in Atlanta visiting a ballot drop box 28 times over a short period, interpreted as evidence of systematic ballot stuffing. In a December 2, 2024, statement amid a defamation lawsuit, filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza conceded that this assertion relied on "inaccurate information" from the data provider, revealing that the device's signals aggregated multiple pings from a single visit into an erroneous count of repeated trips.^[7]^[48] This admission highlighted limitations in the film's geolocation methodology, where imprecise cell tower data (with accuracy radii up to 100 feet) could misrepresent stationary activity as movement.^[28] Surveillance videos featured in the film depict individuals depositing multiple ballots into drop boxes, presented as prima facie proof of illegal harvesting. Georgia election law, however, explicitly allows designated family members or caregivers to deliver absentee ballots for voters unable to do so themselves, such as those with disabilities, without violating prohibitions on paid third-party collection.^[20]^[6] The footage lacks contextual verification, such as ballot envelopes indicating familial relationships or assistive authority, and no prosecutions have stemmed from these specific clips despite official reviews.^[28] Assertions of illegality based solely on multiple deposits overlook these statutory provisions, which predate the 2020 election and align with observed behaviors in legal voting assistance.^[19] The film's estimates of illegal ballots—capped at approximately 400,000 nationwide—fail to demonstrate outcome-determinative impact, as they remain below certified victory margins in key battleground states. In Georgia, Biden's margin stood at 11,779 votes; Pennsylvania's at 80,555; Arizona's at 10,457; and Wisconsin's at 20,682, per official tallies.^[19]^[6] Even assuming the maximum alleged fraud concentrated in these states, empirical aggregation of the film's own data yields irregularities far short of flipping results, as confirmed by state audits and recounts that upheld certifications.^[21] This quantitative shortfall underscores that the claims, while alleging misconduct, do not causally link to electoral subversion on a scale sufficient to alter certified outcomes.^[28]

Legal Proceedings and Responses

Lawsuits by Accused Individuals

In September 2022, Mark Andrews, a Georgia construction company owner, filed a federal defamation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Dinesh D'Souza, True the Vote, Salem Media Group, and others involved in producing and distributing 2000 Mules. The suit claimed that the film and book falsely portrayed Andrews as a ballot-stuffing "mule" through the use of surveillance video from Atlanta drop boxes and geolocation data from his cellphone, leading to reputational damage, harassment, and emotional distress after his identity was publicized. Andrews alleged violations of defamation laws and the Ku Klux Klan Act for voter intimidation, asserting that the defendants lacked evidence of illegal activity and recklessly identified private citizens without verification.^[49]^[50] On October 2, 2023, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg denied the defendants' motions for summary judgment, ruling that genuine disputes of material fact existed regarding whether the film's claims about Andrews were defamatory and whether the defendants acted with actual malice or negligence. The court affirmed that the portrayal could reasonably be seen as accusing Andrews of felony ballot fraud under Georgia law, allowing defamation, false light, and related claims to advance to trial while dismissing some conspiracy counts. As of mid-2025, the case remained ongoing, with Andrews seeking compensatory and punitive damages for privacy invasion and lost business opportunities stemming from public backlash.^[51]^[52] In response to the litigation, Salem Media Group issued a public apology to Andrews on May 31, 2024, acknowledging that his inclusion in the film, book, and promotional materials caused undue harm and ceased all distribution of 2000 Mules and its companion book. The company stated it had relied on data from True the Vote without independent verification and expressed regret for the "hurt" inflicted on Andrews and his family, amid settlement discussions in the suit. Subsequently, on December 2, 2024, D'Souza released a statement admitting that True the Vote had provided his team with "inaccurate information" on specific surveillance footage analyses linking individuals like Andrews to drop boxes, conceding flaws in those particular evidentiary supplements while maintaining the film's broader geolocation methodology. No other prominent lawsuits by named "mules" have been reported, though Andrews' case highlighted risks of misidentification in the film's approach to anonymized data.^[53]^[7]^[48]

Official Investigations and Challenges to True the Vote

In July 2023, the Georgia State Election Board filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court against True the Vote to enforce a subpoena issued in response to the organization's 2021 complaints alleging widespread ballot stuffing during the 2020 election, as highlighted in the film 2000 Mules.^[54] The subpoena demanded production of evidence, including videos, affidavits, and geolocation data purportedly supporting claims of mules illegally depositing ballots in drop boxes.^[54] On February 14, 2024, True the Vote filed a response conceding in court documents that it lacked "video evidence, sworn testimony or other direct proof" of ballot stuffing, though it maintained that patterns in geolocation and surveillance data raised suspicions warranting further investigation by authorities.^[55] ^[56] The organization argued the subpoena sought materials beyond its possession or control, such as law enforcement records, but did not provide the requested evidentiary items to substantiate criminal activity.^[55] Following True the Vote's failure to produce the subpoenaed evidence, the Georgia State Election Board voted on February 26, 2025, to dismiss the lawsuit, effectively closing the probe without validation of the ballot stuffing allegations.^[57] ^[58] State officials noted that despite multiple formal complaints from True the Vote over four years, no actionable evidence emerged to support charges.^[59] Reviews by state attorneys general, such as Arizona's in 2022, focused on True the Vote's activities rather than affirming the 2000 Mules claims, with requests directed to federal agencies like the FBI for scrutiny of the group's methods but yielding no prosecutions based on the alleged fraud patterns.^[60] Federal investigations, including FBI assessments referenced in related contexts, found insufficient basis to pursue charges stemming from the film's geolocation analysis.^[55]

Recent Developments and Admissions (2023–2025)

In February 2024, True the Vote informed a Georgia Superior Court judge that it lacked evidence to substantiate claims of systematic ballot stuffing in the state during the 2020 presidential election and January 2021 Senate runoff, despite assertions in "2000 Mules" relying on its geolocation analysis.^[55] This disclosure responded to a subpoena from the Georgia State Election Board demanding documentation of the alleged illegal activities involving over 200 individuals depositing ballots multiple times into drop boxes.^[61] On May 31, 2024, Salem Media Group, which distributed the "2000 Mules" film and companion book, announced it would halt all future distribution and issued an apology to Mark Andrews, a Georgia resident portrayed in the film as participating in ballot fraud. The company acknowledged regretting its promotion of the content without independently verifying the reliability of the cellphone tracking data central to the fraud allegations.^[8]^[53] In December 2024, Dinesh D'Souza, the film's director, conceded in a court filing related to Andrews' lawsuit that the analysis of geolocation data—claiming mules made numerous trips to ballot drop boxes—was flawed due to inaccurate inputs from consultants, resulting in inflated estimates of visit frequencies that undermined the evidence of coordinated illegal ballot deposits.^[48]^[62] The defamation and voter intimidation lawsuit filed by Andrews against D'Souza, True the Vote, and affiliates advanced into 2025, with a federal judge in June denying defendants' motions for summary judgment and signaling that core claims of false accusation could proceed to trial, emphasizing unresolved questions about the film's data methodology and its impact on targeted individuals.^[63]^[64] On February 26, 2025, the Georgia State Election Board voted to dismiss its enforcement action against True the Vote, citing the group's repeated failure to produce subpoenaed evidence supporting the ballot stuffing operations depicted in "2000 Mules."^[57]

Companion Book and Media Extensions

Publication Details

2,000 Mules: They Thought We'd Never Find Out. They Were Wrong. was published in 2022 by Regnery Publishing, a conservative imprint known for political nonfiction, with Dinesh D'Souza listed as the primary author. The book draws on geolocation data and analysis supplied by True the Vote, a nonprofit election integrity group, to extend the arguments presented in the contemporaneous film of the same name.^[65]^[66] Structurally, the text mirrors the film's narrative arc, beginning with an overview of alleged vulnerabilities in 2020 election procedures, particularly unsecured ballot drop boxes enabled by changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It then describes the identification of "mules"—individuals purportedly paid to collect and deposit ballots illegally—via cellphone location pings showing patterns of visits to multiple drop boxes (at least 10) and affiliated nonprofit offices (at least 5) within defined time windows. D'Souza contends these patterns, cross-referenced with surveillance footage in select cases, indicate systematic ballot stuffing by approximately 2,000 such operatives, generating an estimated 400,000 to 1.2 million illegal votes across battleground states, sufficient to alter the presidential outcome.^[66]^[67] The volume supplements the visual medium of the film with textual elaboration on the data acquisition process, including True the Vote's purchase of anonymized geotracking records from third-party vendors covering 400 million cellphone pings in five key states. Appendices provide further methodological notes on data filtering thresholds and references to state statutes prohibiting unauthorized ballot handling, framing the activity as violations of laws against "ballot harvesting" in jurisdictions like Georgia and Arizona.^[66] In September 2022, Regnery Publishing recalled initial printings of 2000 Mules: They Thought We'd Never Find Out. They Were Wrong. shortly after its planned release, citing a "publishing error" in the description of True the Vote's criteria for identifying potential mules via geolocation data.^[66] The erroneous version stated that mules were defined as cell phones making five or more visits to ballot drop boxes and five or more visits to nonprofit locations, whereas True the Vote's actual threshold required ten or more drop box visits and five nonprofit visits to flag suspicious patterns.^[66] Dinesh D'Souza acknowledged the discrepancy on social media, attributing it to an oversight in editing, while Regnery confirmed that advance copies had been distributed in error but emphasized the correction did not alter the book's core thesis.^[66] A revised edition was reissued in October 2022, with modifications including the deletion of unverified claims tying alleged mules to antifa or Black Lives Matter via ACLED database analysis, as well as the removal of specific nonprofit names accused of facilitating ballot storage—replaced with a note that True the Vote possessed the details for potential law enforcement referral.^[65] These changes softened language around "vote trafficking" to "potentially storing ballots" in some contexts, reflecting adjustments amid emerging legal scrutiny.^[65] The book's recall intertwined with broader evidentiary challenges in the companion film, particularly through defamation lawsuits that exposed flawed data inputs from True the Vote. In a December 2024 settlement with Georgia voter Mark Andrews, falsely depicted as stuffing drop boxes dozens of times, D'Souza conceded that the film's portrayal relied on "inaccurate information" about visit frequencies, with geolocation records showing only ten visits to a single location rather than the multiple sites implied.^[68] ^[62] This admission echoed True the Vote's prior disclosures in related litigation, where raw data failed to support extrapolated claims of widespread trafficking.^[62] Collectively, these issues eroded confidence in the quantitative assertions—such as the estimate of 2,000 mules depositing over 400,000 illegal ballots—by highlighting inaccuracies in visit aggregation and threshold application, though they left intact the underlying methodological question of whether geolocation patterns could indicate non-public ballot handling without direct video or forensic ballot evidence.^[68]^[62]

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A documentary film which claims widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election, sufficient to change the overall outcome.
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Jun 5, 2023 · The conspiracy-peddling nonprofit made loans to founder Catherine Engelbrecht and issued contracts to longtime director Gregg Phillips that ...
[18]
The Fraud That Dare Not Speak Its Name | The Heritage Foundation
Jun 2, 2022 · The analysis indicates that the 2,000 mules were on average visiting 38 drop boxes ... nonprofit groups, although they are not named or ...
[19]
No major problems with ballot drop boxes in 2020, AP survey finds
Jul 17, 2022 · ... boxes are not allowed under state law and can no longer be widely used. Drop boxes also are a focal point of the film “2,000 Mules,” which ...Missing: unsupervised | Show results with:unsupervised
[20]
Fact Check: Does '2000 Mules' provide evidence of voter fraud in the ...
May 27, 2022 · A documentary directed by conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza claims it can prove widespread fraud was carried out during the 2020 ...
[21]
What '2000 Mules' leaves out of ballot harvesting claims
May 10, 2022 · Election investigators have reviewed several videos included in “2000 Mules” and found no illegal behavior, including a video that showed a ...
[22]
'2000 Mules' fact check: Michigan experts debunk election fraud claims
Aug 8, 2022 · Some Republicans see the movie as proof of widespread ballot drop box fraud in 2020, but experts say claims in “2000 Mules” range from ...
[23]
Film Claims It Has Video of “Mules” Stuffing Ballot Boxes in 2020 ...
Mar 2, 2022 · Dinesh D'Souza's next movie, "2000 Mules," will show video of people he says stuffed ballot boxes in swing states during the 2020 ...Missing: surveillance | Show results with:surveillance
[24]
Fact-check: geolocation accuracy and "2000 Mules" - Cybersect
May 20, 2022 · The film's producer (Dinesh D'Souza) claims that geolocation data from phones can locate somebody within six feet, allowing him to precisely place a person at ...Missing: pings geofencing radii
[25]
Discussing the gaps in '2000 Mules' with Dinesh D'Souza
May 17, 2022 · Discussing the gaps in '2000 Mules' with Dinesh D'Souza. May 17, 2022More than 3 years ago.
[26]
Controversial "2000 Mules" movie moves needle for one skeptic ...
May 24, 2022 · John and Melanie Franklin had their suspicions about Joe Biden being the true winner of the 2020 presidential election.Missing: geolocation partnerships
[27]
Fact Checking Dinesh D'Souza's '2000 Mules' - The Dispatch
May 21, 2022 · On May 7, 2,000 Mules, a documentary film from right-wing provocateur Dinesh D'Souza, debuted in more than 270 theaters across the country.<|separator|>
[28]
Evidence Gaps in '2000 Mules' - FactCheck.org
Jun 10, 2022 · A conservative film now playing in select theaters around the country isn't “determinative, definitive” proof of widespread voter fraud.
[29]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18924506/characters/nm13662616/
[30]
Instagram post falsely says '2000 Mules' proves Democrats cheated
Oct 28, 2022 · Republicans who believe the falsehood about widespread voter fraud in 2020 often cite the "2,000 Mules" movie about mail ballot drop boxes ...<|separator|>
[31]
'2000 Mules' offers the least convincing election-fraud theory yet
May 11, 2022 · A religious text for true believers, the film completely fails to create any chain of evidence making the case Dinesh D'Souza claims is ...Missing: methodology | Show results with:methodology
[32]
Trump's 'big lie' hits cinemas: the film claiming to investigate voter ...
May 29, 2022 · 2000 Mules has been resoundingly debunked by factcheckers, but the film has earned praise from Trump and other Republicans.
[33]
Trump Rails Against Fox News for Not Airing '2000 Mules' Movie
May 15, 2022 · Trump heralded "2000 Mules" and said it exposed "great election fraud," a claim that has been repeatedly debunked since he lost the 2020 ...Missing: statement | Show results with:statement
[34]
What an amazing night with some great patriots seeing 2000 Mules ...
May 5, 2022 · Photo by Marjorie Taylor Greene on October 17, 2025. May be an image of.
[35]
Right-Wing Flop of the Year: Dinesh D'Souza's “2000 Mules”
Dec 28, 2022 · 2000 Mules is categorized as a documentary, but Wikipedia's characterization—a “conspiracy theory political film”—is closer to the truth. It ...Missing: surveillance | Show results with:surveillance
[36]
Should TX GOP leaders apologize for promoting '2000 Mules'? | TPR
Jun 7, 2024 · How "2000 Mules" is a fake documentary about voter fraud. But will Texas GOP leaders admit that? Juneteenth Rodeo, why 1970s photos of Black ...
[37]
Calls for hearings into election fraud claims in 2000 Mules
Jul 13, 2022 · Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) is calling for hearings into the 2020 election fraud allegations made in the documentary film 2000 Mules.
[38]
2000 Mules Becomes the Most Successful Political Documentary in ...
May 12, 2022 · The movie 2000 Mules, directed by Dinesh D'Souza, with Salem Media Group as Executive Producer, has already become the most successful political documentary in ...
[39]
“Big Lie” Vigilantism Is on the Rise. Big Tech Is Failing to Respond.
Jun 17, 2022 · Stolen-election activists and Trump supporters have embraced a new tactic in their campaign to unearth supposed proof of fraud in the 2020 ...
[40]
Hunting for Voter Fraud, Conspiracy Theorists Organize 'Stakeouts'
Aug 10, 2022 · Mentions of “ballot mules” surged in May after the debunked documentary “2000 Mules” claimed that an army of operatives stuffed ballot boxes ...Missing: unsupervised | Show results with:unsupervised
[41]
Debunked film causes Republicans to mobilize, raising concerns of ...
Nov 3, 2022 · A film claiming liberals are stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent votes has been debunked. But some Republicans are mobilizing because of its claims.
[42]
'Chaos and confusion': The campaign to stamp out ballot drop boxes
Oct 30, 2022 · Dinesh D'Souza's discredited film “2000 Mules” airs unproven allegations, based on misinterpreted cell-phone location data and surveillance ...Missing: unsupervised | Show results with:unsupervised
[43]
Election Deniers Want AI Cameras to Stream Footage of Ballot Drop ...
Sep 13, 2024 · The claims made in the 2000 Mules conspiracy film centered on voters who placed more than one ballot in drop boxes. However, Jacobs points ...
[44]
How Conspiracy Theories Surrounding “Ballot Mules” Led to ...
Nov 7, 2022 · The unsubstantiated claim that people were hired to drop fake ballots in boxes in swing states during the US 2020 election to prevent Donald Trump from winning
[45]
In Jan. 6 hearing, former AG Barr discredits '2,000 Mules' voter fraud ...
Jun 16, 2022 · PolitiFact | A documentary alleged massive voter fraud in the 2020 election. Barr said the documentary does not prove its claims.
[46]
Bill Barr Mocks '2000 Mules' Film in Jan. 6 Deposition
Jun 13, 2022 · Former Attorney General Bill Barr mocked the premise of "2000 Mules," a conspiratorial movie that purports to show massive fraud with ballot dropboxes in the ...
[47]
Former AG Bill Barr discredited the '2,000 Mules' voter fraud film in a ...
Jun 15, 2022 · ... election. Specifically, it argued that 2,000 people collected 400,000 illegal votes and delivered them to vote drop-boxes in key states that ...
[48]
Dinesh D'Souza, '2000 Mules' Director, Acknowledges the Film Was ...
Dec 2, 2024 · The director, Dinesh D'Souza, who is facing a lawsuit over the documentary, admitted that an analysis used to make claims about election fraud that were later ...
[49]
Protect Democracy sues makers of election conspiracy film '2,000 ...
Oct 26, 2022 · Protect Democracy and its partners filed suit against the makers and promoters of the election lie-hyping film 2000 Mules on behalf of a private citizen in ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[50]
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1123898736
[51]
Judge Rules Against Dinesh D'Souza et. al, Allows Case to Proceed
Oct 2, 2023 · The defamation and voter intimidation lawsuit filed against the makers and promoters of the disinformation film 2000 Mules and its accompanying book will ...
[52]
Georgian falsely accused in '2000 Mules' of voting fraud wants ...
Jun 7, 2025 · But the moviemakers, including conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza and the election group True the Vote, said they couldn't have defamed a ...
[53]
Salem Media Statement - Investor Relations
May 31, 2024 · ... Salem”), published a film and book entitled 2000 Mules that examines allegations of voter fraud related to the 2020 presidential election.
[54]
Election officials sue conservative voting group over refusal to ...
Jul 12, 2023 · The Georgia State Election Board is asking a judge to order a conservative voting organization to produce information to help investigate ...
[55]
Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back its claims ...
Feb 14, 2024 · A conservative group has told a Georgia judge that it doesn't have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general ...
[56]
True the Vote fails to reveal evidence of Georgia voting fraud claims
Feb 14, 2024 · The conservative group True the Vote told a court it doesn't have any records to back up its allegations of election fraud highlighted in ...
[57]
Georgia election board drops suit after group fails to produce ballot ...
Feb 26, 2025 · The Georgia State Election Board dismissed a lawsuit against True the Vote, which sought evidence for claims of ballot stuffing in Georgia's ...
[58]
Georgia Election Board Drops Suit After Group Fails to Produce ...
The Georgia State Election Board on Wednesday voted to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to enforce a subpoena against a conservative ...
[59]
Georgia State Election Board Dismisses True the Vote Litigation
Feb 26, 2025 · For the past four years, True the Vote sent data, documents, research, and formal complaints for the State's review. Yet the only investigation ...<|separator|>
[60]
Arizona AG's office asks feds to investigate conservative nonprofit ...
Oct 14, 2022 · The office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is asking the FBI and IRS to investigate True the Vote, a conservative vote-monitoring nonprofit.
[61]
Conservative group tells judge it has no evidence to back its claims ...
Feb 14, 2024 · ... evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later. Texas-based True ...
[62]
'2000 Mules' creator admits some of film's claims are flawed - CNN
Dec 2, 2024 · The creator of a widely debunked movie that became a central pillar in the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen has admitted ...
[63]
Ga. Judge Signals '2,000 Mules' Slander Suit May Go On - Law360
Jun 6, 2025 · A Georgia federal judge signaled Friday that he may leave it up to a jury to decide whether a Peach State voter was defamed by his portrayal ...
[64]
Court affirms core claims in Andrews v. D'Souza as case heads to ...
A federal judge has rejected summary judgment motions by the creators of 2000 Mules, ruling that their statements about ...
[65]
What was changed in Dinesh D'Souza's "2,000 Mules" book after it ...
Oct 25, 2022 · In August, the conservative publisher Regnery abruptly recalled Dinesh D'Souza's election denial book "2000 Mules ... Even True the Vote, the ...Missing: geolocation | Show results with:geolocation
[66]
A publisher abruptly recalled the '2000 Mules' election denial book ...
Sep 8, 2022 · Due to an unspecified "publishing error," the conservative publisher Regnery recalled the book version of Dinesh D'Souza's widely debunked ...
[67]
2,000 Mules Chapter Summary | Dinesh D'souza - Bookey
Jun 29, 2024 · Book 2000 Mules by Dinesh D'souza: Chapter Summary,Free PDF Download,Review. Exposing Alleged Election Fraud with Geo-Tracking Technology.
[68]
Dinesh D'Souza Admits '2,000 Mules' Used False Data - Rolling Stone
Dec 2, 2024 · MAGA filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza admitted that the election conspiracy film "2000 Mules" used discredited data.