Dinesh D’Souza Pleads Guilty

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The conservative intellectual committed a particularly clumsy crime — an ill-disguised straw-donor scheme that violated federal campaign finance law — in an inexplicable attempt to aid a Republican candidate who never had a real chance to win. Whether or not Dinesh D’Souza was a target of selective prosecution, he was nonetheless guilty, and has now officially admitted he broke the law:

Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a campaign finance law violation, avoiding a trial that had been expected to begin the same day in a Manhattan federal court.
D’Souza, known for his biting criticism of President Barack Obama, pleaded guilty to one criminal count of making illegal contributions in the names of others. A second count concerning the making of false statements is expected to be dismissed once he is sentenced.
The plea came four months after Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara charged D’Souza with using “straw donors” to give funds in 2012 to Republican Wendy Long’s U.S. Senate campaign in New York. Long, who met D’Souza while they were students in the 1980s, lost to Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand.
“I knew that causing a campaign contribution to be made in the name of another was wrong and something the law forbids,” D’Souza, 53, told U.S. District Judge Berman on Tuesday. “I deeply regret my conduct.”

(Via Memeorandum.) Evading federal campaign finance law is rather easy to accomplish by entirely legal means, and even illegal “straw donor” schemes usually go undetected. But D’Souza is an intellectual, and as such, lacked the necessary “street smarts” either to find a legal loophole or to get away with a federal crime.

 

38 comments

  1. Obviously he was offered a plea bargain.

    We probably all break a few misdemeanors and (maybe even a felony or two) without even realizing it. That is the nature of our over regulated society.

    But this was not exactly that, this was him trying help out a friend and being ham fisted in doing so (and not realizing or ignoring he has a big fat target on him).

  2. I would like to welcome Mr. D’Souza to Club Fed! IF he gets sentenced to serve time I hope he selects FPC Pensacola, they have the best jobs and accomodations in the federal system …

  3. Exactly! It’s not like he set out to consciously break the law! He’s not an intensional criminal like I was …

  4. Yes and no. I agree this is not fraud. But he knew there was a limitation and tried to be cute. What he should have done is consulted a lawyer on what is the legal way to avoid the law.

    Which is in itself a completely fucked up development in U.S. criminal law.

  14. First off, the deck was stacked against him.

    “Berman, however, ruled D’Souza was not entitled
    to seek government evidence that could have bolstered that argument,
    saying there was no sign D’Souza had been targeted.”

    And that’s from a left leaning news site.

    Without being able to show that he was singled out and other discovery revelations of course he had to take a plea bargain.

    It’s SOP to demand a full admission and apology when making a final plea.

    He was facing quite a few years if they decided to make an example of him and what other conclusion could he draw since they targetted him and then thwarted a defense.

    Stating his plea as a voluntary and unforced admission of guilt is incorrect. Factual but without regards to what might have gone on behind the scenes.

  15. True, but he could go to trial and have his day in court. And of course face a year and a half in prison.

    And who knows, he may very well end up getting jail time with this deal.

  17. I just recently read a good book called Three Felonies A Day, which is named for the estimated number of felonies that everyone in the United States commits every day.

  20. Baloney! He knew damned well it was illegal and tried to conceal it.

    I’m certain he finds the law unwise, as do I, but it’s still the law.

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