The Making of "American Shaman" Part 4: Harassed By The DOJ, FBI and IRS

Canceled on social media. Investigated by the DOJ and FBI. Audited by the IRS. After 4 years we've finally made it to Apple TV. This is a four-part article series on the making of the film.

NOTE: This is Part Four of a four part article series. Check out Part One, Part Two and Part Three first if you missed it.

Once the January 6th Committee was formed, the the Federal Government contacted me because I was present in Washington DC filming a documentary on January 6th. They wanted me to provide access to all of the footage from the Stop the Steal rallies and January 6th.

My attorney responded on my behalf, and they advised him that they "were inquiring about whether Mr. Rink would voluntarily agree to provide materials that he captured while documenting the rallies on January 5th and 6th."

He let them know I would not comply. "Turning over to a third party proprietary material in advance of their inclusion in a documentary greatly reduces the commercial value upon release. In addition, the materials are protected by the First Amendment."

Then, on July 8, 2022, The Guardian wrote an article naming me as someone who had footage that "shows key moments of planning with fellow activist Ali Alexander to overturn election results in Trump’s favor"

In the article, I was surprised to discover that The Guardian was aware of the precise content of the communication between my legal counsel and the January 6th Committee, and mentioned that I would only turn over footage if I was issued a subpoena.

Ten days after The Guardian article was published, I was contacted by the DOJ and FBI with a request to review my footage. In that email, the DOJ linked to The Guardian article.

This kind of “intel laundering” from the government to media outlets in order to generate a pretext for an investigate is rampant. It happens all the time to public figures. But here I was, an unknown filmmaker, getting the same treatment.

I was floored.

We advised them that if a subpoena was issued, we would fight it. But I also agreed to place the footage in escrow with a third party in anticipation of a subpoena to avoid a situation in which armed agents come to my door for the footage.

We did this. However, to this day, a subpoena was never issued.

Then, on September 27, 2022, I received a letter from the IRS advising me that...for the first time in my life...they were looking into my past tax records. They were attempting to extort me for over $120,000.

I believe the January 6th Committee leaked information to The Guardian to write a story that would give the DOJ and the FBI a pretext to investigate me and access my footage. I believe I was politically targeted by the IRS to try and financially ruin me for refusing to comply.

After more than a year of back and forth with them, I ended up settling the issue with the IRS for a small fraction of what they attempted to get from me (more than $100,000 less), rather than fight it in tax court.

CONCLUSION

After 4 years of fighting to get this film out to the world, it looks like we’re finally going to succeed. Shortly after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, I had a meeting with a film distributor who agreed to work with us to get the film on major streaming platforms worldwide, starting with Apple TV on January 6, 2025.

This is a significant change from meetings I had in 2021 and 2022, where the Netflix and Hulus of the industry said they would not give a platform to a film about Jacob Chansley, because he was the “Osama bin Laden of January 6th.”

Hopefully, this film marks the first of many films that are welcomed to major streaming platforms as entertainment companies realize that there is a majority of Americans who want truthful, right-of-center content. And that there is a lot of money to be made by serving those audiences the content that they want.

So, if you’ve made it this far…what are you waiting for? Go check out “American Shaman” on Apple TV January 6, 2025!