Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative commentator, best-selling author, and filmmaker, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for violating federal campaign finance laws.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York announced the indictment Thursday evening. According to the indictment, in August 2012 D'Souza directed people to contribute $20,000 to a U.S. Senate candidate's campaign. He later reimbursed those people.
Federal law limits primary and general election campaign contributions to $2,500 each. That means an individual can contribute a maximum of $5,000 to a single candidate.
The Senate candidate was not identified in the indictment.
"As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process,"Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
"If, as alleged, the defendant directed others to make contributions to a Senate campaign and reimbursed them, that is a serious violation of federal campaign finance laws."
D'Souza served as a policy director to President Ronald Reagan. He has been affiliated with numerous conservative think-tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
More recently, D'Souza wrote and directed the 2012 documentary "2016: Obama's America," the apocalyptic look at life in the U.S. under President Barack Obama.