The producer of Dinesh D'Souza's hit, anti-Obama film, who believes D'Souza's prosecution on federal campaign-finance charges is political payback, is urging President Obama to affirm his support for the First Amendment's right of free speech in his State of the Union address tonight.
"I understand that the president will be speaking in the state of the union speech about income inequality," Gerald R. Molen, the producer of "2016: Obama's America" and the Academy Award-winning film "Schindler's List," told WND.
"I am also hoping that he will make a statement that all citizens are equal under the law and that his most vocal critics in popular culture will not be singled out for special scrutiny and selective prosecution," Molen said.
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D'Souza's 2008 film "2016: Obama's America," which envisioned dire consequences for the nation if Obama were elected to a second term, became the second-highest grossing political documentary of all time.
Federal authorities have accused D'Souza of donating more than the legal requirement to the 2006 campaign of Republican Wendy Long, who lost the race for the Senate seat in New York that had been vacated by Hillary Clinton.
The indictment charges D'Souza donated $20,000 to Long's campaign by aggregating the money from various people and falsely reporting the source of the funds.
As WND reported, many of D'Souza's defenders see the indictment as the administration exacting revenge over D'Souza's film.
Molen, in a previous WND interview, called the charges against D'Souza "the equivalent of prosecuting a political dissident in the Soviet Union for jay-walking."
"Yes, jaywalking in the Soviet Union is a crime, but it's a minor crime. The real point is that you are a political dissenter and the government wants to put you away," he said.
"When Dinesh D'Souza can be prosecuted for making a movie," he continued, "every American should ask themselves one question: 'What will I do to preserve the First Amendment?'"
Dennis Michael Lynch, well-known for his films on immigration, "They Come to America" and "They Come to America II: The Cost of Amnesty," also sees a political motive behind the charges.
"Is he guilty of what it is they claim he did? I have no idea," Lynch told WND.
But, he added, "Guilty or not, they're going to throw him into the mud to discredit his name."
And why would "they" do that? Because, Lynch pointed out, D'Souza has another film coming out, right before the 2014 midterm elections.
"What Dinesh D'Souza proved is there is a huge appetite, a huge audience, for the kinds of films that he and I make. That's why it won't happen again. Because, the other side knows that. And they want to make sure that doesn't happen," observed Lynch.
He said what D'Souza accomplished is extremely rare, because it is almost impossible for conservatives to get distributors to show their films in theaters. Almost all conservative filmmakers have to sell their movies as DVDs.
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"Dinesh was the exception. He had the perfect storm. Everything lined up. He went about it the right way," he said.
D'Souza's new film, "America," is scheduled for release July 4, and Molen predicts it will become a thorn in Obama's side because of the prosecution against D'Souza.
"This action may have been designed to intimidate us, but it will have the opposite effect," Molen said.
Lynch also believes the prosecution of D'Souza will boomerang because of the old adage, "There is no such thing as bad publicity."
"Actually, this is going to be a huge win for Dinesh. He couldn't get more lucky. He's going through the pain right now, but when that new film comes out, it's going to be the talk of the town," Lynch predicted.
D'Souza pleaded not guilty to the charges last week in federal court in Manhattan, where he was released on $500,000 bond and restricted to travel in the U.S.
He faces a maximum of two years in prison for the illegal contributions charge and a maximum of five years in prison for a false statements charge.
D'Souza's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, released a statement saying, "Mr. D'Souza did not act with any corrupt or criminal intent whatsoever. He and the candidate have been friends since their college days, and at worst, this was an act of misguided friendship by D'Souza."
Molen insists the Obama administration "is engaging in a practice of 'selective enforcement of the law,' where there is double standard such that if you oppose Obama politically, the IRS and the Department of Justice knock on your door, but if you're a liberal who supports Obama, you can say anything you want."
In the eyes of the Obama administration, Molen contends, D'Souza's crime was to dare to produce a movie that could damage President Obama at the polls.
"This is not the America we grew up in," Molen said. "In the America I treasured, a president would go out of his way to protect those who disagreed with the president's policy. That's what the First Amendment is all about."
Molen said D'Souza is encouraging Americans who still treasure the First Amendment and want to preserve the right to express political dissent without being prosecuted to "vote with your feet" by making the debut of D'Sousa's next film, "America," a success at the box office.
See a trailer for the upcoming film: