Dinesh D’Souza Slapped With Campaign Fraud Charges

Dinesh D’Souza speaks at the 2012 CPAC convention in Washington, D.C. Gobonobo (CC-BY)

Onetime conservative wunderkind-turned-filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, who brought “2016: Obama’s America” to the big screen in 2012, is now further entrenched in the world of dirty politics.

D’Souza, who rose from Reaganite beginnings to become a fixture on the ’90s speaking circuit, stands accused by federal prosecutors of funneling $20,000 in illegal contributions to New York Senate contender Wendy Long, a Republican, also in 2012. That was a busy year for the commentator-filmmaker, apparently, as he also left his position as president of the King’s College that October after it was discovered he was engaged to one Mrs. Denise Odie Joseph while still married himself.

But we digress. Here’s more from The Associated Press:

Prosecutors said he directed people to make the contributions to the campaign and then reimbursed them, which is a violation of election law that limits total contribution from one person to one candidate at $5,000.

Prosecutors said D’Souza, a San Diego resident, was charged with causing the illegal campaign contributions to be made and causing false statements to be made in connection with them. They said the criminal case resulted from a routine review by the FBI of campaign filings by various candidates after the Senate race.

Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman said D’Souza didn’t act “with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever.”

Adding to the sting of the campaign finance fraud accusation is that, ultimately, Long lost out to her incumbent challenger, Kirsten Gillibrand.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson