Filmmaker spreading debunked election claims criticizes secretary of state

Jun. 15—The director of a documentary that purports to expose massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election is hitting back at New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who called the claims in his film false.

Before the June 7 primary election, Toulouse Oliver launched a new webpage designed to correct "the most prevalent points of misinformation" in voting and elections.

Dubbed "Rumor vs. Reality," the webpage branded the documentary 2000 Mules bogus, saying it used flawed assumptions and faulty data to try to prove its point.

"The movie's claims ... have been debunked by numerous sources," the webpage states.

Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative pundit whose controversial film was mocked by former Attorney General Bill Barr in his testimony to the committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, said in YouTube videos posted late Monday he tries to keep an eye out for critiques of his film and doesn't like to leave any "substantive" criticisms unaddressed or unanswered.

"All of this is just one foolishness on top of another, and the idea that this can be delivered with a straight face on an official website is just a pure embarrassment," D'Souza said in one of the videos, referring to information on the secretary of state's webpage refuting the film.

"The power of the movie is bold in the geotracking data and the confirmation provided by the video evidence," D'Souza said. "When you put the two together, you have an unassailable case, and you can see all these pathetic losers flailing helplessly in an effort to discredit that case."

Alex Curtas, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office, said Tuesday that D'Souza's comments on YouTube reflect the same kind of empty rhetoric he and others have been pushing about the 2020 presidential election.

"We used PolitiFact, [the Associated Press], verified, trusted news sources who took the time to — and God help them — watch the movie and actually investigate what's going on," he said.

"It's interesting that we're taking up so much room in his head that he feels like he's got to come at us on this, but I would certainly stand by our fact-check website, and we stand by the respected, accredited news organizations like the Associated Press and PolitiFact, who have done the hard work to debunk the outlandish claims that he makes in that movie," Curtas added.

D'Souza's YouTube videos rebutting Toulouse Oliver's claims about the documentary have generated thousands of views.

In one of the videos, D'Souza said Toulouse Oliver is using recycled information to try to discredit his film.

"This is actually fairly standard for the left," he said. "She is referring to other fact checks that themselves have been discredited and debunked. Nevertheless, she's acting as if they're true."

D'Souza is a controversial figure. He was convicted of felony election fraud in 2014 and pardoned four years later by then-President Donald Trump, who hosted a screening of D'Souza's documentary at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The Associated Press said the film uses a flawed analysis of cellphone location data and ballot drop box surveillance footage to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The documentary "paints an ominous picture suggesting Democrat-aligned ballot 'mules' were supposedly paid to illegally collect and drop off ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin," the AP reported. "But that's based on faulty assumptions, anonymous accounts and improper analysis of cellphone location data, which is not precise enough to confirm that somebody deposited a ballot into a drop box, according to experts."

The Republican Party of New Mexico shared a link to one of D'Souza's YouTube videos on its Twitter account, sparking criticism from the state's Democratic Party.

"The NMGOP is embracing conspiracy theories and convicted fraudster Dinesh D'Souza and his completely debunked claims about elections," the Democratic Party of New Mexico tweeted Tuesday. "They're more interested in belaboring Trump's lies about losing the 2020 election than the issues New Mexicans care about."

The lies the 2020 presidential election was stolen led to election officials fleeing their homes after receiving threats, the Democratic Party wrote in a separate tweet.

"The @NewMexicoGOP has the insolence to amplify them for partisan gain," the party tweeted. "New Mexico has the freest, most fair, and secure elections in the country and to say otherwise is blatant misinformation."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.