A Georgia voter filed a lawsuit against conservative author and media personality Dinesh D’Souza and others Wednesday over claims against him in the “2000 Mules” documentary, arguing the film falsely claimed he committed voter fraud.
D’Souza and Salem Media Group’s documentary claims the 2020 election was plagued by “mules” illegally “trafficking” ballots, and included surveillance footage of auditing and technology executive Mark Andrews depositing his family members’ ballots into a ballot box, the lawsuit says. A law enforcement investigation cleared Andrews of wrongdoing, with Georgia law allowing people to deposit ballots for their family members as he did, according to the lawsuit, which also lists D’Souza Media, Salem Media Group, True the Vote, its Executive Director Catherine Engelbrecht, associate Gregg Phillips and unnamed parties as defendants.
However, as Andrews appears in the film, D’Souza says that “what you are seeing is a crime. These are fraudulent votes.” The organization True the Vote was involved in 2000 Mules‘ production and shared a trailer on social media that included footage of Andrews. (RELATED: Obama’s ‘Democracy Forum’ Promotes Director Of ‘Zuckerbucks’ Organization That Poured Millions Into 2020 Election)
“Defendants promoted the film and their ‘mules’ narrative on television, radio, online, and via other media — including in front of millions of Fox News viewers — and repeatedly showed images of Mr. Andrews as an exemplar ‘mule,'” the lawsuit said. “Because of Defendants’ lies, millions of people have seen the images of Mr. Andrews as the proverbial smoking gun proving the ‘mules’ theory.”
The lawsuit argues Andrews should be given royalties for the appropriation of his likeness, and defendants should surrender profits.
“True the Vote does not comment in detail on pending litigation,” a representative of the group told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The organization is confident that the claims regarding True the Vote in this litigation will be found to be without merit.”
D’Souza and Salem Media did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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