Prosecutor Charges Conservative Scholar for Lying to NY Candidate

A Republican candidate told government investigators that a conservative scholar and author lied to her about the source of donations made to her U.S. Senate campaign, a prosecutor disclosed at an arraignment Friday.

Wendy Long, who ran against Democrat incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2012, made the statement to investigators as they were building a case against Dinesh D’Souza, the pundit who made the anti-Obama documentary “2016: Obama’s America.”

D’Souza, 52, was indicted after he directed two individuals to each make $10,000 in donations to Long’s campaign with the understanding that he would reimburse them for their contributions, which he did soon afterward.

D’Souza pleaded not guilty to charges that he violated campaign finance laws. He was released on $500,000 bond and his travel was restricted to the United States.

His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman there was not much dispute about what happened.

“I think there’s a dispute over how it happened and whether what happened violated federal law,” Brafman said.

He said he had been in discussions with the government for some time before his client was indicted and had hoped to convince prosecutors that criminal charges were inappropriate.

Outside court, Brafman said there was no corrupt intent, a necessary component of the law, in his client’s actions, and he said the $20,000 in donations fell short of the $25,000 required to bring a criminal case. He said it was a situation that was normally resolved with a fine rather than criminal charges.

He said D’Souza and Long had been friends since college and “at worst, this was an act of misguided friendship by D’Souza.”

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the January 27th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.