Conservative commentator and best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse after pleading guilty in New YorkThomson Reuters The Arizona Attorney General’s office is asking the FBI to investigate the group behind the election conspiracy theory film “2000 Mules” The film has been promoted by former President Donald Trump as proof of fraud in the 2020 election. Former AG Bill Barr mocked the film during a January 6 Committee hearing in June. The Arizona Attorney General’s office wants the FBI and the IRS to investigate the group behind conservative activist Dinesh D’souza’s election conspiracy theory movie “2000 Mules.
“The film, which was released in May, makes bogus claims that hundreds of Americans across the country conspired to stuff ballot boxes in favor of President Joe Biden, allegedly based on phone data. But Truth the Vote, the group behind the film, has repeatedly refused to turn over any of its supposed evidence to law enforcement, the attorney general’s office said in a letter according to the Arizona Republic. Reginald “Reggie” Grigsby, chief special agent of the Arizona AG office’s Special Investigations Section, wrote that the group had raised “considerable sums of money” off of the film’s claims and said that “given TTV’s status as a nonprofit organization, it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted,” The Republic reported.
According to Politico, Grigsby wrote in the letter that Truth the Vote leaders Catherin Englebrecht and Gregg Phillips met with state investigators three times in 2021 and promised to turn over data that would prove that fraud occurred during the 2020 election, a promise that they never followed through on. After the group promised to turn over the data, it began publicly claiming that it had given the state a hard drive, Grigsby wrote. “Not only is this patently false, TTV acknowledged via correspondence and during a meeting with them that they had not given us the information but that they would,” he wrote.
The attorney general’s office and Truth the Vote did not immediately return Insider’s requests for comment on Sunday. Many Republican politicians and Arizona political candidates have touted the film’s debunked election fraud claims. According to The Republic, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake called the film’s producer Dinesh D’Souza a “patriot” in an interview on Newsmax in May.
“There’s no way they can discount what is in this movie,” Lake said in the interview, according to The Republic. Former President Donald Trump has also pointed to the film as proof that the 2020 election was stolen and has hosted screenings of the film at his Mar-a-Lago home. Former AG Bill Barr mocked the film and laughed at its conclusions in a January 6 Committee hearing in June, calling the movie’s claim that cellphone data proved the election was stolen “indefensible.
” —Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) June 13, 2022″The election was not stolen by fraud, and I haven’t seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that, including the ‘2000 Mules’ movie,” Barr said in his deposition while laughing. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/arizona-ag-asks-the-fbi-to-investigate-the-group-behind-2000-mules-2022-10
