Dinesh D'Souza Pleads Guilty to Making Illegal Campaign Contribution
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| Dinesh D'Souza, political writer, filmmaker |
The filmmaker behind "2016: Obama's America" faces up to two years in prison; the more serious charges are expected to be dropped.
Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza has struck a deal with prosecutors over charges he used straw donors to give $15,000 more to a U.S. Senate campaign than is allowed under campaign finance laws, authorities said Tuesday.
D’Souza was to have started his trial this week in New York, but instead he pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of making illegal campaign contributions, which carries a maximum two-year sentence. He’s expected to be sentenced in about four months.
EXCLUSIVE: President Obama's Half Brother Backs Out of Interview With Dinesh D'Souza Over Indictment
In exchange for D’Souza’s plea, prosecutors are expected to drop the more serious charge of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
D’Souza was indicted in January for asking some friends to donate money to the campaign of Wendy Long, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully against Democratic incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in New York in 2012, and allegedly promising to reimburse them for their donations.
From the beginning, attorney Benjamin Brafman characterized his client’s alleged transgression as “an act of misguided friendship,” and he and others have said federal authorities were engaging in payback for D’Souza’s movie 2016: Obama’s America, a hit documentary that portrayed President Barack Obama in a negative light.
“It’s a remarkably selective prosecution, considering Obama raised millions of dollars under similar circumstances and donors merely faced civil fines while D’Souza is charged with felony violation of federal law,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told The Hollywood Reporter in February.
Likewise, Gerald Molen, who produced 2016 and is also producing D’Souza’s next film, America, told THR last week that the arrest amounted to “political intimidation," and he called for the charges to be dropped. On Tuesday, Molen added, "Anyone who knows Dinesh knows that none of this will deter him from continuing to speak out about this administration or other public issues and making sure that our movie is released on schedule."
Brafman also filed papers claiming that the government "targeted" D'Souza because of his "highly publicized criticism" of the president, though a judge last week was unsympathetic to that argument.
On Tuesday, Brafman told THR that D'Souza did, in fact, urge two associates to donate $10,000 each to Long's campaign and then reimbursed them; therefore, "there was no viable defense" against the charges.
"We are hopeful that Judge [Richard] Berman will recognize Mr. D'Souza to be a fundamentally honorable man who should not be imprisoned for what was an isolated instance of wrongdoing in an otherwise productive and responsible life," Brafman said.
While insiders say the filming of America has been more difficult because of D’Souza’s indictment, Lionsgate is expected to open it wide on schedule July 2. One piece of fallout related to the arrest, though, is that Obama’s half brother, Mark Obama Ndesandjo, pulled out of an interview, with a representative writing in an email to the filmmakers: “Upon reconsideration, Mark has decided it would not be appropriate to join your project while the federal investigation of Mr. D’Souza is ongoing.”
Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com
Johnny Chung, Charlie Trie, John Huang, James Riady, Maria Hsia...
ReplyDeleteD'Souza isn't even in the same league with the Clintons, or Obama...
Tony Rezko, Courney Dupree, John Corzine, and the rest of the Illinois mafia.
Egg-ZACK-Lee!!!
ReplyDeleteSo why do conservatives ALWAYS roll over and eat turds D'Rats lay on the Capitol Steps? That's what I want to know.
Have they NEVER learned that the ONLY good defense is an even BETTER ATTACK?
BTW, Thersites,
ReplyDeleteTHANKS fir the MEMORIES!
De nada! Perspective can often serve to properly frame the subject.
ReplyDelete;)
Small fish in a big pond, true.
ReplyDeleteBut the little weasel pissed off a lot of people and they went gunning for him.
Small fish should keep a low profile.
It seems to be that he has been targeted. He must have hit a nerve, huh?
ReplyDeleteSmall fish should keep a low profile.
ReplyDeleteSounds like justification for the "big fish" to chow down.
TOUCHE, Thersites!
ReplyDeleteSo much for The Bill of Rights!
So much for "Equality!"
So much for Fairness and Decency!
So much for Open-Mindedness!
So much for Individualism!
So much for Freedom of Choice!
Our Ducky unabashedly supplies further proof every day -- as if we needed it! -- that the Left only wants carte blanche to assume DICTATORIAL power and establish a TOTALITARIAN regime.
Yes, AOW! He hit a nerve all right, so OF COURSE, he was "targeted."
ReplyDeleteThe American People in their selfish, ineffably ignorant, bumbling, have installed a STALINESQUE Regime in Washington, D.C.
It could never have happened, however, without the influence of The Oligarchs. The big Joke is that just as many Republicans as democrats support The Oligarchs, because they have been thoroughly intimidated or lavishly bought off.
Surely you've noticed how EVERY anti-Establishment voice that appears to give "us" hope is quickly marginalized or silenced altogether?
This could not possibly be accidental.
Even FOX News is part of The Plan. They're paid to play a part, but only to an increasingly limited extent.
Congress, the White House, the Enemedia, and The Crony Capitalists who own and operate them are treatung us to an unending FARCE -- a SHAM -- a TRAVESTY.
It HAS to be that. There is no other plausible explanation for why things are what they are.
Apparently, Ducky TRULY believe that Might Makes Right, after all.
ReplyDeleteAnd like everyone else on the Left he makes an indignant, perpetually pissed off show of Counterfeit Concern for the Little Man!
The Stench of Hypocrisy from the Left is enough to gag a maggot.
O/T All Poets, LAMENT!
ReplyDeleteAvaritia huius saeculi (The greed of this time)
el domage! La vie est une tragédie.
ReplyDeleteC'etait toujours vrai, mais surtout maintenant
"Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose."
Et, ou est les neiges d'entin? C'est ici aujourd'hui. C'est eternelle.
Ours has become another "Stingy Age". Erudition's "worth", like that of many other talents, is vastly under-appreciated and generally perceived by the multitude as an undesirable excess. The benefits to be derived from the division of labour necessary to generate luxury and surpluses in our 'materially oriented' society for the purpose of "exchange" for "profit" is generally misperceived as well, for we are generally open to receiving the cultured "gifts" of erudition from others, but we are generally unlikely to invest in our own "personal" efforts to produce them in return. We erringly see the "profit" in doing so as one-sided (for we seek to gain more from the exchange than the other participant). More people should read Plato's "Hipparchus", and thereby come to understand that "profit" is always a two-way street, and that those who produce "shoddy goods" are soon left with no one willing to "exchange" goods in the cultural market. And a shrinking "market" profits fewer and fewer.
ReplyDelete