US-based D'Souza to face trial for poll finance violation

Conservative Indian-American author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, a known critic of US President Barack Obama, will go on trial in May on charges of violating federal finance laws by making illegal contributions to a Senate campaign.
In a hearing yesterday at the Manhattan federal court, Judge Richard Berman scheduled trial in the case for May 19, with a pre-trial conference set for May 15.
D'Souza, 52, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, was also present in court but did not make any comments.
Berman ordered that pretrial submissions including joint jury charges and motions are due by April 17 and response to any motion is due by April 24.

D'Souza, who is free on a USD 500,000 bond, has his travels restricted within the US.
He requested permission to travel internationally but the government opposed this and Berman said court will consider his request at a later date.

D'Souza of San Diego, California, was charged in January by Manhattan's top federal prosecutor India-born Preet Bharara with one count of causing USD 20,000 in illegal campaign contributions to be made to a candidate for the Senate in 2012. The charge carries a maximum jail sentence of two years.
He also is charged with one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission in connection with the illegal campaign contributions, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The Mumbai-native, a best-selling conservative author, had come in for severe criticism for his 2012 documentary '2016: Obama's America', with the Obama campaign accusing him of launching a smear campaign against the president and alleging that the film was a deliberate distortion of Obama's record and world view.
The documentary had equated re-election of Obama with the death and dismemberment of the US and had been running at number three on the top movies list when it was released.
According to the allegations in the indictment, the Election Act had in 2012 limited both primary and general election campaign contributions to a total of USD 5,000 from any individual to any one candidate.

However, in August 2012, D'Souza directed other individuals with whom he was associated to make contributions to the campaign committee for US Senate candidate Wendy Long in 2012 that totalled USD 20,000.
He then reimbursed those people for the contributions.