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Arizona AG requests FBI, IRS to look into conservative nonprofit behind ‘2000 Mules’

October 15, 2022 | | Print Article

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has requested that the FBI and the IRS investigate the conservative nonprofit behind “2000 Mules” for raising money by questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

The nonprofit, True the Vote, “has alleged wide-spread voter fraud during the 2020 national general election” yet failed to deliver whenever asked to hand over the evidence to substantiate these allegations, according to Brnovich’s office.

“TTV has raised considerable sums of money alleging they had evidence of widespread voter fraud and their efforts would train the public to protect election integrity at the polls and to help protect all voters’ rights,” the AG’s office wrote to the IRS and FBI in a letter dated Oct. 14th.

“They indicate they have provided the information to law enforcement agencies; in our case they have not after promising to do so. Another law enforcement agency has also stated they have not provided them the information, informing them they had given the information to us,” the letter continues.

“Given TTV’s status as a nonprofit organization, it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted,” the letter concludes.

True the Vote is the same nonprofit organization whose data was featured in conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza’s film “2000 Mules.”

“[A]ctivists from True the Vote, a Houston-based vote-monitoring organization that has pushed election conspiracies, are listed as executive producers on the film, which borrows heavily from their discredited research,” according to The Texas Tribune.

But it’s not necessarily that their research has been discredited so much as it is that they’ve reportedly failed to prove that their research is legitimate.

For instance, the letter from Brnovich’s office notes how True the Vote has claimed to be in possession of mobile phone tracking data showing people making repeat trips to ballot drop boxes during the 2020 presidential election.

Yet, according to the letter, True the Vote has refused to release this data.

“TTV has alleged wide-spread voter fraud during the 2020 national general election. It purports to have geolocation data that it claims is indicia of ballot stuffing and voting fraud. Specifically, TTV alleges it has in its possession geolocation data from a number of mobile devices showing those mobile devices making several trips in which it is said people are walking to, from, or past ballot drop boxes,” the letter reads.

“Information has not been provided as to the specific location, whether or not there is in fact a drop box at that location, nor is there any information on the person(s) who may be in possession of the mobile device. TTV did not provide any video evidence to support claims of ballot box stuffing. TTV is adamant it has evidence of ballot stuffing and voting fraud. However, when asked to provide the information, which Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips promised to do, TTV never provided the information,” it continues.

Engelbrecht and Phillips refer to True the Vote president Catherine Engelbrecht and True the Vote partner Gregg Phillips.

Engelbrecht previously made appearances on Fox News to defend then-President Donald Trump’s calls for an investigation into alleged voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.

The letter from Brnovich’s office continues by describing Engelbrecht and Phillips’ meetings with the attorney general’s staff.

“Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips met with representatives of our Special Investigations Section on three different occasions (June 3, 2021; April 5, 2022; June 1, 2022),” the letter reads.

“During those meetings, Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips stated they obtained the unique individual phone identifier/fingerprint and geolocation data from a private vendor who sells such information for marketing purposes. They report spending $2 million for the information,” it continues.

Yet they “never” provided the data they claimed to have.

“[W]e asked for the information and they did not provide it, saying they would. On May 4, we sent an email to TTV requesting the information. On May 6, we received an email from Ms. Engelbrecht in which she stated they had been busy but would send us the information next week. Again, the information never arrived,” the letter reads.

The group claimed otherwise publicly, telling its followers that it was handing over all the alleged evidence to state officials.

“TTV then began to publicly assert they had provided us with the information — to include a hard drive — and made that same claim to the Arizona State Senate and the Phoenix Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Not only is this patently false, TTV acknowledged via correspondence and during a meeting with them that they had not given us the information but that they would,” the letter notes.

True the Vote has responded to the letter by accusing Brnovich’s staff of being full of it.

In a Truth Social post published early Saturday morning, the group said they “gave the AZ AG everything” at first but “stopped working with AZ AG when they doxxed whistleblowers.”

It’s not clear which whistleblowers were doxxed by Brnovich’s office …

Vivek Saxena
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