Campaign Finance Sentencing Disparities
Justice is not blind and the world is not fair. We see this in the political world where on some issues Republicans who run afoul of the law seem to get stiffer punishment than Democrats. This is especially true for those who give big bucks to the political campaigns of Democratic incumbents. Many Americans were shocked when in September documentarian Dinesh D’Souza was sentenced to eight months in a San Diego community confinement center for “therapeutic counseling” and five years’ probation, and he was fined $30,000. All this for what? For pleading guilty to illegally donating $20,000 of his own money through straw donors to help fund a college friend’s political campaign.
In a decision that accompanied D’Souza’s admission of wrongdoing, he gave two of his friends money to donate to his college friend’s campaign after he had exceeded the $5,000 limit allowed by campaign finance laws. The prosecution sought a 10-16-month prison sentence, but the Bill Clinton-appointed judge imposed a lighter sentence that still seemed harsh to most observers because Dinesh was being punished for a crime many people commit and few, if any, ever go to jail. The sentence and prosecution were not above suspicion because D’Souza is the author of two books that formed the basis of documentary films critical of President Obama, 2016: Obama’s America and America: Imagine a World without Her.
While D’Souza is busily serving out his sentence and receiving his re-education at the San Diego center, hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal pled guilty to illegally giving $180,000 in campaign contributions to the federal campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Representative Kendrick B. Meek of Florida. Also accused of witness tampering, Chatwal was fined $500,000, given three years’ probation, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. Notice, though: no confinement time for Chatwal. Unlike D’Souza, he gets to walk. And let’s not forget former U.S. Senator John Edwards, whose two attorneys in his employ were indicted and subsequently acquitted on charges they had used 60 straw donors to give $125,000 to Edwards’s 2004 presidential campaign. Edwards? Untouchable in this instance.
The only difference I can see is that two of these men (Chatwal and Edwards) are Democrats and the other (D’Souza) a Republican known for his criticism of President Obama. This sort of politically engineered justice echoes the IRS targeting of conservatives and the blind eye shown tax delinquent Al Sharpton, who reportedly owes $4.5 million in back taxes yet advises the president. It is clear we live under a government that sees itself as above the law and thinks nothing of rewarding friends and punishing its enemies.
