D'Souza, who is also 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 movie was a deliberate distortion of Obama's record and world view.

The documentary had equated reelection 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.

D'Souza's lawyer said in a statement quoted by New York Times that his client did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent.

"He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at most, this was an act of misguided friendship by D'Souza," his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in the statement.

The Senate candidate was not identified in the indictment.

A report in the NYT said D'Souza had donated to only one federal candidate in 2012, giving USD 5,000 to Wendy Long, a New York Republican who lost her challenge to democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

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 a candidate for the US Senate that totalled 20,000 dollars.
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