Earlier this week conspiracist filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza publicly apologized for the false claims in his election fraud conspiracy movie 2000 Mules.

Despite being repeatedly debunked, the movie, which baselessly asserted that the 2020 election was rigged in part by people hired to stuff ballot boxes with fraudulent votes, led to conservative efforts in Colorado and elsewhere to organize volunteers to monitor ballot drop boxes to watch for supposed fraud.

Last November, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, praised the conspiracist’s work as “credible reporting” and pointed to criticism of the movies as proof of their accuracy.

Patel made his statements to D’Souza’s daughter Danielle, who was hosting a livestream at the premiere of D’Souza’s most recent film, Police State. Patel appears in the movie, which alleges that federal law enforcement is and has been engaged in persecution of conservatives for years. Former Colorado conspiracist Sherronna Bishop, whose house was raided by the FBI in 2021 as part of a federal investigation into then-Mesa Clerk Tina Peters, is featured extensively.

Danielle D’Souza: Kash what inspired you to want to be part of this film?

Kash Patel: I basically do whatever Dinesh says! No, look, your father and you and your family have put together such a history of credible reporting that it is refreshing to see that on the screen. And, you know, when they villainize you over and over again, you’re like, ‘okay, we got it right.’ And I think this one is probably going to be your biggest yet. And so he was like, ‘Hey, you want to be in it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, duh. I wanna be in a movie!’

D’Souza apologized on Monday to Georgia resident Mark Andrews, who was involuntarily portrayed as a criminal in 2000 Mules while legally dropping off ballots for himself and his family. Earlier this year Salem Media also apologized to Andrews and retracted the film, saying it would no longer distribute or promote it. Andrews subsequently dropped his defamation lawsuit against Salem, but his legal claims against D’Souza are ongoing.

Patel’s promotion of government conspiracy theories extend well beyond D’Souza’s films. He’s repeatedly promoted QAnon, which the Trump administration’s FBI declared a domestic terror threat back in 2019.