In May 2022, Donald Trump launched the film 2000 Mules, accusing literally hundreds of Black men (the “mules”) of stuffing ballot dropboxes in Georgia and elsewhere causing Trump his re-election. Problem: Every single person accused by True the Vote, the makers of 2000 Mules, has been proven innocent — every one. Now, True the Vote’s operatives will face civil action in federal court and could pay heavily for their attempt to overturn the 2020 and 2022 elections through voter intimidation.
On March 9, US District Court Judge Steve C. Jones ordered the makers of 2000 Mules and its voter hit lists to stand trial in Atlanta. The Biden Administration has joined the case on Fair Fight’s side.
In 2021, the Palast Investigative Team confronted a self-appointed vigilante challenger who based her attempt to block 32,000 citizens from voting based on a hit list passed to her by True the Vote. [Here is our report for Brian Ross Investigates.]
The Palast Investigative Team, whose experts have previously worked with Fair Fight, went through the True the Vote hit lists, called hundreds of accused voters, and met voters whose rights were challenged. Here is one, Major Gamaliel Turner, and the Republican official who challenged the MAJ Turner’s right to get his absentee ballot solely because the soldier was on a bogus True the Vote hit list of alleged “fraudulent” voters. (Turner was assigned to a Navy Base in California.)
In Judge Jones’ summary judgment he noted that True the Vote’s expert, Gregg Phillips “candidly admits [that] there will be voters on [True the Vote’s] challenge list that are eligible to vote.”
Fair Fight Action’s data expert Dr. Kenneth Meyer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found “True the Vote’s challenges were skewed toward counties with higher percentages of Black voters.” He explained that “27.3% of individuals overall in the challenge file [were] African American, [but] 40.3% of the individuals in duplicated records are African American.”
Unbowed by court action, True the Vote has announced that they are expanding their attack on voter rolls to many states beyond Georgia.
The Palast Investigative Fund is now tracking True the Vote’s expansion of these vigilante vote challenges in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin and staying on the case in Georgia.
To support this work, make a tax deductible donation to our Investigative Fund — and get a copy of Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman, narrated by Rosario Dawson with Martin Sheen. This is a special copy available only to our supporters before its commercial release next year.
Zach D Roberts is an investigative photojournalist who covers far-right extremism and voter suppression in America. He covered the Unite the Right Rally in Chalottesville and his work there helped put four white extremists in jail. He co-produced Greg Palast's films The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Vigilante: Georgia's Vote Suppression Hitman. Roberts is a Palast Investigative Fund Fellow and Puffin artist grant recipient.
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary,
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
His latest film is Vigilante: Georgia's Vote Suppression Hitman
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