Alec Tabak/for New York Daily News
Conservative blowhard Dinesh D'Souza received five years of probation in Manhattan federal court Tuesday for making $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions in 2012.
Before he was sentenced, D'Souza endured stern condemnation from U.S. District Judge Richard Berman and a humiliating, harsh letter from his ex-wife, Dixie D'Souza, that was read aloud. He was visibly relieved when he learned he would not go to prison but instead would spend eight months in a halfway house.
He'll also have to spend one eight-hour day each week teaching English for the length of his probation.
'I'm not sure Mr. D'Souza (that) you get it. It's hard for me to discern any acceptance of responsibility,' said Berman, who struggled throughout the hearing to determine what motivated the commentator's undoing.
'He's a talker. In fact, he's almost a compulsive talker. But I don't think he's a listener. I don't think he's hearing himself and those around him,' the judge said.
It was a crazy idea, it was a wrong idea, it was a foolish idea.
The 53-year-old author of 'The Roots of Obama's Rage' and its accompanying documentary, '2016: Obama's America,' enlisted his mistress and an assistant as straw donors for Republican candidate and longtime friend Wendy Long in her U.S. Senate campaign.
D'Souza pleaded guilty in May. The feds sought a 10- to 16-month sentence.
'It was a crazy idea, it was a wrong idea, it was a foolish idea,' D'Souza said. 'I regret breaking the law.'
Conservative allies including Laura Ingraham submitted letters of support to the court, vouching for D'Souza's character and saying he simply made a careless mistake by trying to help Long's longshot campaign.
Ex-wife Dixie, with whom he is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle, wrote otherwise.
Berman read her letter, in which she said D'Souza had forged her signature on checks as a way to skirt campaign finance laws. Even worse, she wrote, D'Souza was violent toward her.
Richard Harbus/for New York Daily News
'It is my husband who was abusive. He used his purple-belt karate skills, kicked me in the head and knocked me to the ground, creating injuries that pain me to this day,' she wrote.
D'Souza's attorney dismissed those allegations as completely false.
'Never get sentenced if you're going through a bitter divorce,' said Ben Brafman.
D'Souza was once a regular on Fox News.
His '2016' documentary, which proposes that President Obama is driven by an anti-colonialist agenda he inherited from his African-born father, is a smash hit among conservatives.
The conviction is a new low in D'Souza's long downfall.
In 2012, he resigned as president of the evangelical King's College in Manhattan after it was revealed he had become engaged to his mistress, Denise Joseph, while he was still married.
sbrown@nydailynews.com
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