Dinesh D’Souza Indicted For Campaign Contribution Violation

Dinesh D’Souza was recently indicted for violating a United States election law.

The author, filmmaker, and conservative commentator received the federal indictment from a grand jury on Thursday. D’Souza stands accused of organizing excessive contributions to US Senate candidate and former college classmate Wendy Long during her campaign. Long unsuccessfully ran against New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand back in 2012.

“As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a recent statement.

A federal law prohibits individuals from making primary and general election campaign contributions above a combined total of $5,000. According to the indictment, Dinesh D’Souza agreed to reimburse folks who contributed $20,000 to Wendy Long’s campaign.

As a result of his actions, D’Souza faces charges of causing contributors to file false campaign documents and making illegal contributions in the names of others. However, it’s currently unclear what led investigators to take a good look at the contributions Wendy Long received during her campaign.

“Mr. D’Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever. He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at most, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza,” his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in a recent statement.

Since Dinesh D’Souza and Wendy Long attended Dartmouth College and worked on The Dartmouth Review together, Brafman believes that the best-selling author was simply trying to do a favor for his friend. D’Souza also hosted one of Long’s fundraisers during her 2012 campaign against Kirsten Gillibrand. At the end of the day, Long managed to scrape together only $785,000 in contributions.

Some conservatives theorize that Dinesh D’Sourza became a target of President Obama and his supporters following the release of his successful documentary 2016: Obama’s America, a film that was label as “anti-Obama.” Although it took a while to catch on with audiences, the documentary went on to make $33 million at the box office.

While promoting the release of the movie, Dinesh D’Souza was reportedly forced to resign from his position at King’s College following allegations that he got engaged to 29-year-old Denise Odie Joseph while still married to his wife. Some faculty members also felt that D’Souza didn’t have the college’s best interests at heart due to his conservative political views.

Throughout his career, Dinesh D’Souza has penned several books on such hot-button issues as Christianity and terrorism. He also has plans to put together another movie in the near future, a project that he currently refers to as America.