Arizona Attorney General's Office asks FBI, IRS to investigate group behind '2000 Mules'

[RayGravesGhost]

You mean a conservative group of trump supporters who help create the "Big Lie" hasn't provided any evidence of their claims and may have violated the law?

😲


https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-attorney-generals-office-asks-024659704.html
Arizona Attorney General's Office asks FBI, IRS to investigate group behind '2000 Mules'
Ray Stern, Arizona Republic
Fri, October 14, 2022 at 10:46 PM·4 min read


Republican candidates for top statewide offices in Arizona have said they believe what they saw in the election-conspiracy movie "2000 Mules."

Now, the state Attorney General's Office is asking the FBI and IRS for investigations of the group behind the movie, True the Vote, noting that it has repeatedly rebuffed all requests to share the documentary's alleged evidence and has raised "considerable sums of money" based on claims of having that evidence.

"Given TTV's status as a nonprofit organization, it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted," wrote Reginald "Reggie" Grigsby, chief special agent of the office's Special Investigations Section.

The film, released in May and thoroughly debunked by experts and media organizations, claims mobile-phone data obtained by the group shows a coordinated effort by hundreds of people around the country — deemed "mules" — to stuff election drop boxes with ballots for candidate Joe Biden in 2020. True the Vote's representatives said they would use their findings to make elections more secure.

But the moviemakers have since refused to release any of their supposed data to law enforcement groups even after promising to do so, the Attorney General's Office said in the two-page letter Friday.

Grigsby's letter accuses True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and its contractor Gregg Phillips of providing misleading information to his office and other law enforcement groups. He also mentions some of the bogus information the group has previously put out related to the movie, such as the false claims that the group helped solve a murder in Atlanta and break a ballot-harvesting case in San Luis, Arizona.

In sum, the information points to "potential violations" of tax code and given True the Vote's 501(c)3 nonprofit status, the letter states.

True the Vote didn't respond to an email Friday from The Arizona Republic seeking comment.

 

[RayGravesGhost]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/arizona-ag-office-asks-feds-020046497.html
Arizona AG’s office asks feds to investigate conservative nonprofit True the Vote


Grigsby urged the federal agencies to pursue the group after what it described as multiple suspicious interactions with leaders Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips. Grigsby said the pair met with state investigators three times since early 2021 and promised to provide data it said would prove widespread fraud in the 2020 election — but the evidence never arrived.

Even though the group never turned over the promised data, Grigsby wrote, it began publicly claiming that it had given the state a hard drive — a claim Grigsby indicated the group also made to the Arizona Senate and to the Phoenix office of the 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,” he wrote.

True the Vote propagated claims of vote fraud by relying on geolocation data, which became the central focus of the movie “2000 Mules.” Trump has cited the movie as proof the election was stolen, and he’s praised the group’s work. But the movie’s claims have been sharply called into question by federal investigators and researchers who have tested its theories.

In an April 2022 meeting, Grigsby said the group claimed to have evidence of “243 mules” who had stuffed ballot boxes in Arizona. But they presented no hard evidence to back it up, he said.

In his most recent meeting with the group on June 1, Grigsby said Engelbrecht and Phillips indicated they had shared all their data with the FBI and were working with the bureau as informants. But he said the FBI’s Phoenix field office quickly confirmed this to be false and said the group had, in turn, told FBI agents to contact Brnovich’s office to obtain their data.

Grigsby also flagged the nonprofit status of the organization, noting the “considerable sums of money” they had raised while alleging massive voter fraud and promises to provide law enforcement with the information — even as they remained unable to provide the information.