D’Souza issues apology over surveillance videos used in 2020 election film '2,000 Mules'

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza has issued an apology over surveillance videos used in his documentary film “2,000 Mules” about the 2020 election.

D’Souza said some of the video footage that appears in the film, which shows ballot harvesting, is misleading.

He said all of the images of individuals shown in the videos were blurred and unrecognizable but one of them, Mark Andrews, has "initiated a lawsuit over the use of his blurred image in the film and the book." 

D’Souza said he owes Andrews an apology.

"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," he said in a statement. "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. 

D'Souza relied on geolocation data from the organization True the Vote for the film.

He maintained that the overall premise of the film is accurate despite the footage showing Andrews.

True the Vote responded to his public apology.

"The central premise of ‘2000 Mules’, as identified and validated by True the Vote’s (TTV) research, remains accurate. However, regarding the individual mentioned in Mr. D’Souza’s statement, TTV had no editorial control over the ‘2000 Mules’ movie and no involvement in the books," the organization said in a statement.

"We did not select videos or graphics used for dramatic effect. This individual was not part of the geospatial study in which TTV identified 242 unique devices having visited at least 10 ballot drop boxes—a fact that was communicated to Mr. D’Souza’s team. Despite this, D’Souza’s team included a blurred video of this individual in their ‘2000 Mules’ movie and book productions," the group added.