Conservative Indian-American author and Obama-baiter Dinesh D’Souza has pleaded guilty to the charge of campaign finance law violation by using straw donors to make illegal contributions to a Republican Senate candidate in 2012.
The 53-year-old D’Souza, who wrote a book, titled “The Roots of Obama’s Rage”, and co-directed a documentary, titled “2016: Obama’s America”, could face 10 to 16 months of prison sentence following the plea.D’Souza and his wife, according to the indictment, contributed $10,000 to Republican candidate Wendy long’s campaign. He is then reported to have directed his associates to contribute on behalf of themselves and their spouses, totalling $20,000, adding he would be reimbursing them.
US federal election law limits individual campaign contributions to a federal candidate to $2,500 each for a primary and general election campaign.D’Souza’s guilty plea in a US District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday was unexpected, coming on the very day when the court was set to commence the trial.Some Republican lawmakers, notably Senator Ted Cruz, have attacked the Obama administration for the prosecution, saying it has unfairly targeted D’Souza because of his political affiliation and strident attacks on Obama.
D’Souza is the latest scalp for Indian-American attorney Preet Bharara, who said in a statement that the case was handled without any political bias. “We will investigate and prosecute violations of federal law, particularly those that undermine the integrity of the democratic electoral process, without regard to the defendant’s political persuasion or party affiliation. That is what we did in this case and what we will continue to do,” Bharara said.
The attorney for D’Souza expressed the hope that his client would be spared imprisonment, arguing it was “an isolated instance of wrongdoing in an otherwise productive and responsible life”.