''Absolute Proof'' is a 2021

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

directed by and starring

Mike Lindell Michael James Lindell ( ; born June 28, 1961), also known as the My Pillow Guy and Mike Pillow, is an American businessman, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and CEO of My Pillow, a pillow, bedding, and slipper man ...

. It was distributed by

One America News Network One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump news and political commentary television channel and website founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched ...

and promotes the conspiracy theory that

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

won the 2020 presidential election instead of

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

. Around the time of their release the documentary was removed by video hosting sites

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

for violating their community standards, though a reupload of the film has since reappeared on YouTube after YouTube announced it would no longer remove videos falsely claiming the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen in June 2023. ''Absolute Proof'' won two

Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, the Razzi ...

Worst Picture The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture is a prize at the annual Razzies to the worst film of the past year. Over the 45 ceremonies that have taken place, 232 films have been nominated for Worst Picture, with three ties resulting in 48 winn ...

and Worst Actor (for Lindell). Lindell has since released three sequels: ''Scientific Proof'', ''Absolute Interference'', and ''Absolutely 9-0''. He also interviewed Trump about the 2020 election and election conspiracy theories in November 2021.

Premise

In the documentary, Lindell hosts numerous cybersecurity experts and anonymous persons whose testimonies allegedly support his claim that Chinese and Iranian hackers hacked into voting machines in order to influence the results of the election in favour of Biden.

Participants

*Brannon Howse *Mary Fanning *Phil Waldron *Matthew DePerno *Mellissa Carone *Russell Ramsland * Shiva Ayyadurai

Background

On November 7, 2020,

was declared the winner of the

2020 U.S. Presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vi ...

. Alleging that

voter fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...

switched several million votes for Joe Biden, Trump's campaign and Republican allies challenged the election results. At least 63 lawsuits were filed, although none were successful. Trump and his allies unsuccessfully urged officials in states that Biden won to disqualify some ballots and to challenge vote certification processes. Even after Biden was

inaugurated In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...

as the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021, Trump and others, including Lindell, continued to maintain that Trump had actually won the election.

Release

On February 5, 2021,

live streamed the film on its website. Introduced with a disclaimer, the film shortly afterward went viral. Several hours after the live stream,

and

removed all recordings of the film from their sites, citing violations of their community standards, but not before it had tens of thousands of views.

Reception

The film was widely criticized by fact-checkers as being full of "debunked, unsubstantial claims." Mainstream news outlets such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' disputed its claims as well. Lindell's staff confirmed in August 2021 that the data shown in the film was given to Lindell by Dennis L. Montgomery, a software designer with a documented history of fraud.

Awards

In April 2021, ''Absolute Proof'' received two

, which parody traditional awards by honoring a year's worst films.

Sequels

In the months following the release of the film in February 2021, Lindell released ''Scientific Proof'', an hour-long interview with Douglas G. Frank; ''Absolute Interference'', a two-hour-long documentary starring

Michael Flynn Michael Thomas Flynn (born 24 December 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the first Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports tha ...

, which ''

The Dispatch ''The Dispatch'' is an American center-right subscription-based online magazine founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes, and Toby Stock. Several of ''The Dispatchs staff (including Hayes) are alumni of '' The Weekly Standard'', whi ...

'' fact check says "recycles many familiar voter fraud claims that lack evidence"; and ''Absolutely 9-0'', a 26-minute-long interview with an anonymous " white hat hacker" who purported to show packet captures from voting machines used in the 2020 election. In reality, the data presented was a

hex Hex usually refers to: * A curse or supposed real and potentially supernaturally realized malicious wish * Hexadecimal, a base-16 number system often used in computer nomenclature Hex, HEX, or The Hex may also refer to: Magic * Hex sign, a b ...

-encoded version of publicly available voter registration data from Pennsylvania. In November 2021 Lindell also interviewed Trump himself at

Mar-a-Lago Mar-a-Lago ( , ) is a resort and National Historic Landmark on a barrier island in Palm Beach, Florida, United States. It spans 126 rooms and built on of land. Since 1985, it has been owned by Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of t ...

which was later broadcast on Right Side Broadcasting Network during which Trump expressed support for Lindell's idea to melt down Dominion voting machines to turn them into prison bars.

"Cyber Symposium"

On August 10, 11, and 12, 2021, Lindell hosted a "cyber symposium" in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls ( ) is the List of cities in South Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the List of United States cities by population, 117th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha Coun ...

, which he promised would produce "irrefutable evidence" for his claims that the election had been stolen by foreign hackers. However, the cyber expert he had hired to analyze his evidence said he could not confirm that claim. Lindell promised to make the purported packet captures available to attendees and offered a $5 million "bounty" to any attendee who could prove that they did not originate from the 2020 election. Just as the symposium was about to start on August 10, Lindell's website, LindellTV, was inoperative for about an hour – a problem Lindell says, without providing proof, was the result of a hack. Lindell had predicted that because of the irrefutable evidence his symposium would reveal, Trump would be recognized as the true winner of the 2020 election and reinstated as president on August 13, the day after his symposium ended. When that did not occur, he moved the predicted date of Trump's reinstatement to September 13, which also did not result in Trump being reinstated. The packet captures were never presented at the symposium and one attendee described Lindell's supposed evidence as "random garbage that wastes our time". Renowned election cybersecurity expert

Harri Hursti Harri Harras Hursti (born 10 July 1968 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish computer programmer and former chairman of the board and co-founder of ROMmon, where he supervised in the development of the world's smallest 2-gigabit traffic analysis p ...

, who attended the symposium, characterized the data presented as "a big fat nothing and a distraction". In April 2023, an arbitration panel unanimously awarded the $5 million "bounty" to cybersecurity expert

Robert Zeidman Robert Zeidman (born January 18, 1960) is an American electrical engineer and inventor. He rose to national attention in the USA after a private arbitration panel in April, 2023 ruled that Zeidman had proved material provided by Mike Lindell was ...

, agreeing with Zeidman's assertion that Lindell had not produced any valid data from the 2020 election. Lindell subsequently refused to pay, resulting in Zeidman suing Lindell in an attempt to recover the award.

References

External links

*
''Absolute Proof''
on

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

''Absolute Proof''
on

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