On Thursday news broke that anti-Obama filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza would be indicted on Friday. D’Souza is accused of giving too much money to a candidate who sought to replace former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Gerald Molen, a co-producer of 2016, says the charge is politically motivated.
Via The Hollywood Reporter:
Insiders say D’Souza has been friends with Long since they attended Dartmouth College together in the early 1980s. According to the indictment, D’Souza donated $20,000 to Long’s campaign by aggregating the money from various people and falsely reporting the source of the funds. But Gerald Molen, a co-producer of 2016, says the charge is politically motivated.
“In America, we have a long tradition of not doing what is commonly done in too many other countries — criminalizing dissent through the selective enforcement of the law,” Molen tells THR.
D’Souza first learned he was being investigated in the middle of 2013, several months after 2016 had earned $33 million at the box office and become the second-most-popular political documentary in U.S. history. The film included an interview with Obama’s half-brother, George Obama, who was mildly critical of the president.
Molen says D’Souza is being singled out for “an alleged minor violation” in the same way the IRS reportedly targeted conservative Tea Party groups for retribution. “In light of the recent events and the way the IRS has been used to stifle dissent, this arrest should send shivers down the spines of all freedom-loving Americans,” Molen says.
D’Souza was in San Diego working on his next film and book, each to be called America, when he was informed he was about to be indicted and that he should fly to New York and turn himself in to authorities. The indictment came late Thursday, according to those with knowledge of the situation.
D’Souza’s upcoming film America is due in theaters July 4 and is co-produced by Molen, who won a best picture Oscar for Schindler’s List, and Gray Frederickson, who won a best picture Oscar for The Godfather Part II. D’Souza wrote and stars in the film, which is directed by John Sullivan. The filmmakers emailed a statement to THR vowing to release the film on schedule.
UPDATE: A John Edwards donor was charged with a misdemeanor for the same crime.
