Donald Trump
Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official President Donald Trump sought to install as attorney general in the waning days of his administration to bolster his plot to subvert the 2020 election, is a fan of 2000 Mules, right-wing fraudster Dinesh D’Souza’s widely debunked, conspiracy-minded documentary purporting to uncover massive fraud in that election.
Trump wanted Clark, who supported the election subversion plan, to replace acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen, who did not, but backed down when senior DOJ leaders threatened to resign en masse, Rosen and other witnesses told the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection during a Thursday hearing. Their testimony came the day after federal law enforcement officers searched Clark’s house.
Clark’s social media postings indicate an extraordinary credulity with regard to election fraud allegations. The would-be attorney general has repeatedly praised D’Souza’s 2000 Mules film on his Twitter feed, which is unverified but which he identified during an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Clark urged University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck to “see 2000 Mules this week or next if you’re so focused on 2020” in a May 2 tweet.
On May 7, he asked Democratic elections lawyer Marc Elias, “Do you have an attempted rebuttal to #2000MulesMovie? Were you part of the massive multi-State operation #TrueTheVote uncovered?”
Clark also highlighted an interview right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk did about the film by tweeting a write-up from the conspiracy theory website Gateway Pundit.
Clark has also alleged that the only reason to provide vote-by-mail, which was widely available during the 2020 election, is “to provide cover for elections to be stolen.”
2000 Mules' premise that geolocation data proves that widespread ballot box stuffing in key swing states swung the 2020 election has been debunked by an array of news outlets. The film has received heavy promotion on One America News but is apparently not credible enough for Fox News, which D’Souza has complained ignored it.
D’Souza pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and lying to investigators and was sentenced to five years of probation in 2014. He was pardoned by Trump in 2018.
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.
