Most Washington-connected law firms and lobbyists bundle donations from employees and find creative ways to reimburse them without breaking the laws. Dinesh D’Souza, who was indicted on federal charges of violating campaign finance laws yesterday, was mostly just negligent in his reporting.
The indictment accused D’Souza of participating in a straw donation scheme to funnel money to an unnamed Senate campaign. He was charged with one count of making more than $10,000 of contributions in the names of others and one count of causing false statements.
The indictment alleged D’Souza “knowingly made and caused to be made” contributions “in the names of others” during 2012. According to the indictment, D’Souza then “reimbursed others with whom he was associated and who he had directed to contribute a total of $20,000 to the campaign.”
Sloppy reporting is nothing new for D’Souza. In fact, these bad habits have affected his writing and speaking for years. Consider:
- D’Souza’s book about Obama has been debunked as a “fever dream” of uninformed and half-witted speculations
- He claimed that Obama initiated the banking and auto industry bailouts, even though they actually began under Bush
- His movie, 2016: Obama’s America, was filled with false and misleading claims about the president
- While dating another married woman in full view of his fans, the still-married D’Souza blamed “feminists and RINO men” as well as Obama for the decline of the American family
- He blamed 9/11 on the “cultural left” in America
- D’Souza once referred to the president as a “grown up Trayvon“
- He once claimed to have read the Koran, but revealed his utter ignorance of Islam’s holy book under questioning
- D’Souza has claimed that Native Americans were not victims of genocide
- Published in 1995, his first book claimed that American slaves were “treated well“
Of course, the reaction from the fringe has been denial and accusations of political payback, which is pretty much the only defense available to right wing organizers and propagandists anymore. As with James O’Keefe, the so-called “IRS scandal,” and Steve Stockman’s sloppy habits, the right wing has been playing too fast and loose with the rules for too long. As these pigeons come home to roost, their political activities become an excuse for their financial misdeeds because that is so very much easier than addressing the laws of the United States, which do not care what your politics are.
Video: Dinesh D’Souza tries to sell you a fake Christmas tree.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/kpBc7FsZ_yg[/youtube]