Dinesh D’Souza claims case file reveals his prosecution was ‘political’

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza claimed Monday that a newly released case file on his 2014 prosecution for violating campaign finance laws shows he was targeted under the Obama administration for "political" reasons.

D'Souza, in an interview on "Fox & Friends," said that former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office and the Obama administration had been blocking a "congressional oversight committee" from obtaining the file, but Congress has since received it.

"There’s evidence in this case file, and there’s a lot more, that this was a political prosecution conducted by Bharara as a henchman for the Obama administration," he said.

It's unclear which specific lawmakers may have a copy of the file. A spokeswoman for the House oversight committee told Fox News on Monday they do not have the documents.

But D'Souza claimed Monday the file shows his conservative background received special attention, dovetailing with his claims all along that he was singled out for his criticism of the Obama administration.

D'Souza also reprised his criticism of Bharara -- who attracted widespread media attention over the weekend after declaring on Twitter that the Trump administration fired him, after he refused Attorney General Jeff Sessions' request to all U.S. attorneys to resign.

Bharara built a reputation in office as a tough prosecutor who cracked down on Wall Street and political crimes. But D'Souza maintains that the case against him was unfair. In 2014, he was sentenced to five years of probation, a $30,000 fine, and eight months in a San Diego “community confinement center” after being found guilty of illegally organizing for two people to each make $10,000 donations to Wendy E. Long -- a friend from his days at Dartmouth College.

Prosecutors with Bharara's office claimed at the time that his donation involvement was “serious and strikes at the heart of our federal election system."

D'Souza told Fox & Friends on Monday the case file focused inordinately on his conservative background.

In 2012, D’Souza released a movie titled “2016: Obama’s America,” which took a critical view of Obama’s allegedly radical roots. Since then, he released “America: Imagine the World Without Her” in 2014 and “Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” in 2016.

“It’s very interesting as it is kind of a revealing window into Bharara’s way of doing business,” he said Monday. “The first thing that’s highlighted inside my case file is that I’m a conservative, that I’m a prominent critic of the Obama administration.”

He continued: “Now this should be beside the point, but of course in Bharara’s case, it was the point.”

Bharara had been floated as a possible candidate to replace Attorney General Eric Holder in 2014. He has also been touted as a potential candidate for public office in New York.

D’Souza did not offer further information about the details of the file.