Obama DOJ stiffs Congress over D'Souza file
Defies demand from House Oversight Committee
Published: 9 hours ago
NEW YORK – The Department of Justice is defying a request from the House Oversight Committee, refusing to turn over the prosecution file in the criminal case against conservative filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to a charge that he had used straw donors to make campaign contributions to a Senate campaign.
In a letter dated Dec. 22, 2015, House Oversight Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, requested that Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, turn over to the committee the prosecution’s file in United States v. Dinesh D’Souza, 14 CR 045 (RMB), by no later than Dec. 28, 2015.
To date, the Department of Justice has not handed over the file.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing held in Washington Tuesday, DeSantis questioned Peter J. Kadzik, DOJ assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, about the refusal to comply with the request of the House committee.
In response to a direct question by DeSantis about whether or not the Department of Justice planned to turn over the case file, Kadzik indicated DOJ was willing to come and brief the committee on the issue, but had no plan to turn over to the committee the prosecution case file as requested.
In May 2014, D’Souza pled guilty to arranging “straw donors” to contribute $10,000 to the failed 2012 Senate campaign of Wendy Long, a college friend.
On Sept. 23, 2014, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman sentenced D’Souza to an eight-month overnight detention in a San Diego work-release center, five years probation, community service one day a week teaching English to Spanish-speaking applicants for citizenship, plus a $30,000 fine.
Berman also ordered D’Souza to undergo psychological testing during his probation period.
See D’Souza’s works at the WND Superstore, including “America: Imagine The World Without Her,” “2016: Obama’s America,” “God Forsaken,” “Roots of Obama’s Rage” and “What’s So Great About Christianity.”
On July 13, 2015, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman ordered D’Souza to continue psychological counseling, over the objection of D’Souza’s defense counsel, Benjamin Brafman, who provided the court with evidence the psychiatrist D’Souza was initially ordered to see found no indication of depression, no reason for medication, and did not recommend psychological treatment.
‘Selective prosecution’
“Presenting prosecution files presents particular law enforcement sensitivity,” Kadzik commented in response to DeSantis’ question. “I know that the issue you and the chairman are interested in whether or not there was selective prosecution.”
DeSantis interrupted to correct Kadzik that selective prosecution was only one of the issues the committee was interested in investigating in D’Souza’s case.
“There are a number of issues we would like to review and conduct oversight on how the case was handled,” DeSantis said. “We want to get prompt responses. We don’t want this to turn into the IRS or certain other investigations that have just been stonewalled to death.”
DeSantis pressed Kadzik as to the reason for the delay.
See the exchange:
"The D'Souza case is over," DeSantis noted. "There is no ongoing investigation. The sentence has even been served. So, clearly we have a public interest in conducting oversight over how the Department of Justice is doing its job. We fund your agency, and I think we are entitled to the file. So, we don't want a briefing, we want the file."
"I will be happy to take that back and we will be happy to brief, but as I indicated there are particular law enforcement prosecutorial sensitivities …" Kadzik started to answer.
"Such as?" DeSantis interrupted, pressing Kadzik to specify why the Department of Justice was refusing to comply with the request to hand over the file.
"There's the names of witnesses," Kadzik responded. "Individuals who cooperated with the investigation who might not be public and don't want to be disclosed. There's the internal deliberations of the prosecutors …"
'That case has sailed'
Again DeSantis interrupted, "So, basically if a prosecutor did have a motivation, we're not entitled to that, the public is never going to know if the someone had ill-intent when they were presenting cases. Is that what you are saying?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying," Kadzik objected. "In fact, that issue was raised before the court, and the court said the defendant had not provided any evidence of selective prosecution."
"Because the defense also did not have access to what we are trying to seek access to," DeSantis countered. "I understand how in the middle of a case, you would say there's attorney work product, because we have an adversarial system and you're getting into strategy, and that's just the way our system functions. But that ship sailed. The case is over, in the books, prosecuted, felony, served the sentence – that whole argument really is gone at this point."
'It's the public that's being stonewalled'
DeSantis emphasized that if the committee did not get the case file as requested, the committee most likely would issue a subpoena demanding the Department of Justice turn over D'Souza's prosecution case file.
When Kadzik indicated the Department of Justice might take two to three weeks to respond to the committee's request, DeSantis asked for a quicker response, by no later than the third week of January.
"It's not members of Congress who are ultimately being stonewalled," DeSantis said in conclusion, "it's the American people because our constituents ask us about these things. We have constituents who were targeted by the IRS. Our constituents see a government that's totally unresponsive, a government that's very difficult to get answers from, and I don't think that's how the system is designed."
Supporters of D'Souza see a double standard, maintaining Eric Holder's Justice Department typically ignored similar technical violations in contributions to Democratic Party campaigns.
In addition to issues of selective prosecution, D'Souza's attorney Benjamin Brafman at the sentencing hearing objected that the prosecution in asking for a prison term of at least 10 months had misconstrued previous federal campaign contribution felony convictions to argue incarceration was a sentencing norm the judge should follow.
On July 15, 2015, WND reported on the case of Sant Singh Chatwal, an Indian-born naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to making straw donations totaling $180,000 for three Democratic Party politicians, including to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and received a relatively minor sentence in comparison to the sentence D'Souza received.
In 2014, Chatwal pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn federal district court to arranging multiple straw donors in a lavish scheme to give tens of thousands of dollars into Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, plus funneling additional tens of thousands of dollars illegally into the federal campaigns of three other Democratic candidates between 2007 and 2011, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut.
The federal district judge sentencing Chatwal limited his punishment to three years parole, even after Chatwal admitted his goal in arranging the straw contributions to Democrats was to buy political influence in the White House and on Capitol Hill for himself and family, as well as for his many business associates, and numerous friends.
D'Souza's first feature-length documentary, "2016: America," a film that critically explored the anti-colonial base of Barack Obama's political views, hit theaters during the 2008 presidential campaign. His second documentary, "America: Imagine the World Without Her," was released in July 2014, as his book by the same title was a No. 1 bestseller both on Amazon.com and on the New York Times bestseller list.
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/obama-doj-stiffs-congress-over-dsouza-file/#myQLeSsYplgUgd7r.99
