Dinesh D'Souza election fraud film, book '2000 Mules' pulled after defamation suit

• Salem Media Group removed the influential election denial conspiracy film "2000 Mules" and a related book from its platforms and will cease distributing them.
• "2000 Mules" was produced by conservative gadfly Dinesh D'Souza, who argued President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump through widespread ballot fraud.
• Salem Media apologized to Mark Andrews, a Georgia man who was accused in the film of ballot stuffing, and who later sued the company, D'Souza, and the group True the Vote for defamation.

WASHINGTON — The conservative gadfly Dinesh D'Souza's film and book "2000 Mules," which pushes false conspiracies about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, has been removed from distribution by its executive producer and publisher, according to an announcement Friday.

Salem Media Group's announcement that it had yanked D'Souza's film and book also apologized to Mark Andrews, a Georgia man falsely accused in "2000 Mules" of ballot stuffing.

Andrews in late 2022 filed a federal defamation lawsuit against the company, D'Souza, and the non-profit advocacy group True The Vote, which contributed to the "2000 Mules' project.

D'Souza and True The Vote did not immediately respond to requests for comment by CNBC about Salem Media's decision to pull "2000 Mules."

Salem Media released the film in 2022.

The company claimed at the time that "2000 Mules" was "the most successful political documentary in a decade," and that it had grossed $10 million in its first few weeks of release.

The film quickly became a part of a canon of media produced by far-right figures intended to discredit the results of the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden won.

Former President Donald Trump, who lost to Biden, embraced "2000 Mules,"