Dinesh D'Souza indicted for violating U.S. election law

Reuters ^ | 1-23-14 | Jonathan Stempel

[CincyRichieRich]

(Reuters) - Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D'Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate's campaign. The candidate was not named in the indictment.

Attempts to reach D'Souza and a lawyer representing him were unsuccessful.

D'Souza was charged in the indictment with one count of making illegal contributions in the names of others, and one count of causing false statements to be made.

Federal law in 2012 limited primary and general election campaign contributions to $2,500 each, for a total of $5,000, from any individual to any one candidate.

"As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process," the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said in a statement released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Bharara is an Obama appointee.

Born in Mumbai, India, D'Souza, 52, is a former policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan, and has been affiliated with conservative organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

He also directed a 2012 film critical of President Barack Obama, "2016: Obama's America," and has written books including "The End of Racism," "Life After Death: The Evidence" and "Obama's America: Unmaking the American Dream."

D'Souza campaigned in 2012 on behalf of Wendy Long, a lawyer and Republican who sought to unseat Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand as New York's junior senator. Long graduated from Dartmouth College in 1982, a year before D'Souza.

Long could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

[Mortrey]

Benghazi Barry Soebarkah got the Communist Party USA’s support, as well as Al Quaeda’s support.

Yeah...he/she’s a “real” American. (cough....spit.)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

This man is a patriot. He was sought after because he spoke the truth; his movie was dead on. Does he have a good legal defense? Does it matter since 0bvummer controls all three branches of gov't? Let's pray and petition God for his freedom...he is one of us.

I’m no lawyer, but in principle campaign finance “reform” laws are blatantly unconstitutional.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Congress shall have Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States

Taken together, those provisions of the Constitution indicate that

1. Progress in communication technology was not outside the vision of the Framers. If such technology creates a problem, the solution is not to make the Constitution “living” - that is to say, dead - but to amend the Constitution.

2. “freedom of . . . the press can best be understood as the right of the people to spend their own money on propagating their own opinions by technical means.

3. The newspapers and other news outlets have the untrammeled right to promote political candidate of their choice with their own presses, their own ink and their own paper. Nobody questions that. But the reality of “campaign finance reform is that it presumes to limit you and me to certain modest sums of contribution to promote the candidates we favor - on the grounds that we do not own a printing press yet. The conceit that “real journalists” are objective is pure poppycock, and any effort to censor that subjectivity is itself unconstitutional.

4. But the actual criterion for who is a journalist and who is not - according to the journalistic establishment - is that the journalists work for the Associated Press, or for a newspaper which is a member of the Associated Press. But the Associated Press, nor its employees nor its member newspapers, is entitled to titles of nobility. All are equal to you or I in the eyes of the (not unconstitutional) law.

I don’t know that I have organized those thoughts optimally, but I hope I have made it clear that there is not constitutional writ for “laws” limiting how much Dinish D’sousa can spend - or through what organization - to promote his political opinions.

[Chickensoup]

Enemies lists are getting longer and the leftists are not hesitating to frame or go after more promenient conservatives.

YOu have no idea whether any of the charges are true.

Leftist frame freeze and lie, to split conservatives.

This is a warning to anyone who wants to screen or watch D’Sousa’s new film on Obama. More damning than the last one.

[GeronL]

Not illegal when the Democrats do it, of course

[Howie66]

Ain’t a damned thing “American” about the Narcissistic Little Marxist Bastard Asshole, near as I can tell.

[Donnafrflorida]

On many occassions i have gone places where i could be harmed. holding signs at intersection, DC G Beck rally, sarasora airport when al gore arrived. i have had IRS put a lien on me for 85,000. just paid them off (55,000).
we have to be willing to take the “hits”.
our founding fathers risked everything.

I will not be silenced. i will however in all my actions stay true to my conservative christian values.

i am going to DC in may if nothing but to show numbers.
i hope 10 million of us do show up.
if anything you can answer your grandkids “where were you when all this was happening”

[Donnafrflorida]

Probably for just being there.

[Revolting cat!]

I admire you and I will pray for you. You are doing more than most of us.

Dinesh d’Sousa has done more than all of us, and look at him, the system is coming at him with full force. Whoopsie, doo! So yes, he’s violated some laws. 800 new laws came into effect this past January 1 in California alone. Try to step out of your front door without violating some local, state or federal law. It’s not a joke any more.

[cpdiii]

The Justice Department has become an arm of the executive and is being used to prosecute and jail political adversaries.

This reminds me of Hugo Chaves in Venezuela, I lived there before Hugo came to power.

Chaves packed the Judiciary with his henchmen, methodically persecuted political enemies and then had the judiciary change the Constitution to allow him to remain in power after his two terms in office. The reason a president in Venezuela could only have two terms was because their constitution was modeled after our constitution.

Obama is using Chaves as a blue print. However Chaves had a more difficult task than Obama. Venezuela had a free press. It took him some time to suppress them. In Obama's case he has a press that supports him without being told what to write. With rare exceptions, the "Free Press" in the United States is nothing more than political whores for Obama. It must be noted that when Lenin gained power after the Russian revolution, the first group that went to the Gulag or were shot was the once free press

We are on the brink of tyranny.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks for your post.

By the way for future reference it is faux pas, not fopaw.

[heights]

And tomorrow our illustrious Republicans will be discussing immigration reform, or another trade deal with China.

[RichInOC]

Why’d it have to be Dinesh? Why couldn’t it have been Sullivan, or Frum, or Brooks?

[Biggirl]

.....And I stand by my prediction, PERIOD.

[Biggirl]

Have been reading that there will be a march for freedom mid-May in D.C. Best wishes and I do hope the turnout is BIG.

[who knows what evil?]

It’s going to take this nation of people to do a Nineveh - and since I do not see the subject of national repentance talked about much even in the churches, I am not optimistic.

Bump the hell out of that statement! WHERE is the call for repentance???

[rodguy911]

Just what we need here a newbie spell check policeman.I just hope you are as adamant about knocking off lefties as you are about my grammar.If I need anymore “help” I will ask for it.

[Scoutmaster]

IF this change of relationships was done above-board, as it seems to have been.

Personally, I wouldn't call it above board, having followed the story since the beginning.

Note that I like D'Souza. I've liked him since he was a student at Dartmouth, editing The Prospect and writing for The Dartmouth Revices.

I have no doubt that there was a substantial political element to this election law charge against him, although he may have violated the law.

[rodguy911]

I think its likely he violated the law.The election laws are a maze a prosecutors dream. The big question will be did he do it intentionally? IMHO, he's way too bright to have done that,makes no sense.Hope he has a good lawyer.

[Justa]

I don’t think anyone is saying he didn’t violate the law. I’ll wait to see what his sentence is before passing judgement.

[Cheerio]

Didn't see any investigations - let alone indictments - when Obama did the same thing. Opps, I forget he carries a "D" behind his name and they have different rules. McLame wanted to get along, so he wouldn't bring it up. McLame even slammed Bill Cunningham for using the word "Hussein" in his introduction of McLame.

Obama’s Untraceable Donations: Hundreds of Millions From Overseas? Campaign Turns Off AVS Verification?