Admitted Felon Dinesh D'Souza May Be Headed To Prison
Earlier today, conservative firebrand Dinesh D'Souza pled guilty to one count of violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, a felony, by making $20,000 in illegal contributions of the 2012 campaign of Wendy Long for the U.S. Senate seat held by Kristin Gillibrand of New York. D'Souza's crime was violating the $5,000 cap on donations to a Senate campaign by secretly reimbursing an additional $20,000 to four people who donated the maximum to the Long campaign.
“I knew that causing a campaign contribution to be made in the name of another was wrong and something the law forbids,” D’Souza, wearing a black suit and colorful tie, said softly in court.
Why did Dinesh D'Souza commit this crime? Was it because he thought his extra $20,000 would push Wendy Long over the top? Not a chance. At the time D'Souza made his illegal donations, Wendy Long trailed Senator Gillibrand by over 40 points in the polls.
Did D'Souza make his illegal campaign contributions in a campaign of civil disobedience to prove that the $5,000 cap on contributions to a single candidate were unconstitutional? No. Even after the Supreme Court stuck down other campaign contribution limits on April 2 in McCutcheon v. FEC, D'Souza pled guilty before trial rather than taking his fight to the Supreme Court.
Rather, D'Souza's crime traces back to the Dartmouth Review in the early 1980s. D'Souza and Wendy Long were both early leaders of the Dartmouth Review - the conservative student newspaper at the vanguard of the conservative attack on the "liberal mainstream media." Ironically, Sen. Gillibrand's also graduated from Dartmouth, but she did not overlap with either Long or D'Souza.
By statute, D'Souza faces up to two years in prison for his conviction. Under D'Souza's plea agreement, his Sentencing Guideline recommendation will be 10 - 16 months, although D'Souza can argue at sentencing for a lower sentence. If Judge Berman imposes a sentence in the Guideline's range, under Section 5C1.1, he will have the authority to order that D'Souza serve up to 50% of his sentence in a halfway house.
D'Souza's sentencing has been set for September 23. My bet is that D'Souza will be sentenced to 10 months, five months to be served in prison and five months in a halfway house.