Obama critic D'Souza spared prison for violating election law -- Reuters

[bsteadman]

Obama critic D'Souza spared prison for violating election law

Reuters
Nate Raymond
9/23/2014

Excerpt:

(Reuters) - Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza avoided prison on Tuesday when a U.S. judge sentenced him to serve eight months in a community confinement center after he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law.

D'Souza, 53, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan to live in a center, which would allow him to leave during non-residential hours for employment, for the first eight months of a five-year probationary period.

Berman also ordered D'Souza to perform one day of community service a week during probation, undergo weekly therapy and pay a $30,000 fine.

D'Souza, a frequent critic of U.S. President Barack Obama, admitted in May to illegally reimbursing two "straw donors" who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.

"It was a crazy idea, it was a bad idea," D'Souza told Berman before being sentenced. "I regret breaking the law."

Prosecutors had sought a 10-to 16-month prison sentence, rejecting defense arguments that D'Souza was "ashamed and contrite" about his crime and deserved probation with community service.
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View the complete article, including photo, at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0HI23820140923

[bsteadman]

Dinesh D’Souza sentenced to eight (8) months in a halfway house for violating election law (and for being an Obama critic, writing books like The Roots of Obama’s Rage and making movies like 2016)

Lucas Daniel Smith's Blog
Lucas Daniel Smith
9/23/2014

Excerpt:

United States of America vs Dinesh D’Souza, USDC, Southern District of New York, No. 14-cr-00034:

United States District Judge Richard Berman has today sentenced Dinesh D’Souza to serve eight (8) months at a community confinement center. In other words, a halfway house.

These facilities are typically for offenders who are coming out of prison or offenders who are given a last chance before, and in lieu of, being sent to prison.

Judge Berman also ordered the following:

1. one day of community service a week

2. pay a $30,000 fine

3. weekly therapy

Last month D’Souza admitted to illegally giving $20,000 to two of his friends (and both of their spouses) as reimbursements for their donations to Wendy Long’s U.S. Senate (R- NY) campaign in 2012. Regulations at the time limited individual donations to a maximum of $5,000. One the friends was Denise Joseph.

Wendy Long’s 2012 campaign was unsuccessful.

D’Souza and Long have known each other since their days at Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.

During sentencing prosecutors in the case stated that D’Souza has been seen on television and the internet, after his guilty plea, stating that he was ”selectively” targeted for prosecution and that he had no choice but to plead guilty.

This is a big no-no in federal court because you are required to take responsibility for anything that you plead guilty to. It should be noted that pleading guilty in a federal court is nothing like pleading guilty in a state court. In the federal system one must be ‘debriefed’ and admit to all crimes that one has ever committed and also provide information that one has on all crimes that others, including friends and family, have committed during one’s lifetime.

Those debriefings are then used to prosecute, or apply pressure to, other individuals. Sometimes years down the road.

In any event, the Judge (Berman) wasn’t real pleased with D’Souza exercising, post-guilty plea, his free speech online, and on television, regarding the criminal case.
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View the complete post at:

http://www.wasobamaborninkenya.com/b...-such-as-2016/