A conservative media company has withdrawn the widely debunked — though popular in right-wing circles — documentary and book that falsely claimed ballot fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The Salem Media Group also issued a public apology Friday to a Georgia man, Mark Andrews, who was accused in the movie "2000 Mules" of putting illegal ballots in a drop box in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, the Associated Press reported Friday.
"What you are seeing is a crime. These are fraudulent votes," conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza claimed in a voiceover.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared Andrews of any wrongdoing after determining that the ballots were cast by him, his wife and their three adult children, who all lived at the same address, which was legal under state law.
The documentary was a favorite of Donald Trump supporters. Trump called the film the "greatest and most impactful documentary of our time," and railed against Fox News for not covering it, accusing the network of refusing to cover it because "they do not want the TRUTH to get out."
During recorded testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee, former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr also said the 2020 election "was not stolen by fraud."
"And I haven't seen anything since then that changes my mind on that, including the '2000 Mules' movie," Barr added with a laugh.
In a statement posted on its website, Salem Media said it had "removed the film from Salem's platforms, and there will be no future distribution of the film or the book by Salem."
"It was never our intent that the publication of the 2000 Mules film and book would harm Mr. Andrews. We apologize for the hurt the inclusion of Mr. Andrews' image in the movie, book, and promotional materials have caused Mr. Andrews and his family," the publicly traded company said.
Salem Media, which operates a radio network aimed at conservative and Christian audiences, also said it "relied on representations made to us" by D'Souza and True the Vote, a nonprofit, self-described "ballot integrity" operation based in Houston.
Lawyers for D'Souza, who was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump for making illegal campaign contributions in a 2012 Senate race, and True the Vote didn't respond to messages, AP said.
Salem Media's move came during an ongoing federal defamation case filed by Andrews in Oct0ber 2022 against the company, D'Souza and True the Vote.
Lawyers for Andrews and Salem Media didn't respond to emails asking whether the company acted in response to the lawsuit, AP said.
