Two Ali G Recruits Speak Out, and One Plans to Sue Sacha Baron Cohen
Michael Aboud, the chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, says he was misled about his part in Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G: Who Iz I? and intends to sue. He has called Cohen a "liar" and a "pervert." Chron reported on 23 October 2026 that a Texas Republican was suing Cohen over the film.
The film is a mockumentary, meaning it is shot like a real documentary but is staged and scripted. In it, Cohen's character recruits people to a cause, and Aboud appears alongside a second recruit, Joshua Loudermilk. Aboud has said he was misled. The Independent carried his claim in its coverage from the same week.
Loudermilk is a 54-year-old aspiring actor from North Carolina. He says he answered a Craigslist post from the American Citizen Initiative in September 2025. The group was recruiting patriotic Americans concerned about the border crisis. Attendees recruited through that advert were promised $300 plus travel expenses.
Loudermilk, who recently played Squire Dap in a production of Camelot at the Town of Hudson Fall Dinner Theatre, told The Guardian that he recognised Cohen early in the shoot. He kept up the act anyway. He says he played a hard-right MAGA supporter ready to defend the US border. He also says he was in on the joke, though the filmmakers did not realise it.
Loudermilk said he was surprised that the production company did not notice the social media posts he made shortly after the shoot. In those posts he named Cohen and wrote about his excitement over the project.
The film repeatedly stresses that both Loudermilk and Aboud were "not in on it." That line is the film's own framing. Loudermilk's account and Aboud's claim of being misled point in different directions, and the two men have not been shown to have spoken to each other about the matter.
For anyone who has ever signed up for a casting call, the story is a reminder of how much a recruitment advert can promise, and how little the person answering it may know about the project behind it. Aboud's planned suit will test that gap in court, if it goes ahead.
