Conservatives blame Dinesh D’Souza’s indictment on ‘Nazi Germany’-like conspiracy

Defenders of embattled conservative pundit Dinesh D'Souza are alleging that a far-reaching conspiracy on the part of angry liberals is to blame for his recent indictment for campaign fraud. Media Matters has published a round-up of some of the right-wing players who have gone to bat for D'Souza since it was announced that he was indicted on federal campaign finance charges.

Prosecutors allege that D'Souza illegally donated tens of thousands of dollars to a U.S. Senate candidate by asking friends to write checks to the candidate with a promise by D'Souza of reimbursement. The practice is expressly forbidden under U.S. law and the use of so-called "straw donors" to enrich the coffers of a particular candidate is considered a felony.

The New York Times speculated that the candidate in question is erstwhile New York Senate

hopeful Wendy Long, who attended Dartmouth College with D'Souza in the late 1980s and served alongside him on the staff of the college's conservative newspaper, the Dartmouth Review.

Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones announced on his show Thursday night that the Obama administration has begun its "purge" of critics.

"America is going over the edge," Jones warned. "I actually am scared."

The indictments against D'Souza and corrupt former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) are evidence that Obama is launching a nationwide putsch aimed at silencing opposing voices.

His words fairly running together with excitement, Jones declared that, "The issue is here, they can find a mistake in your checking account and claim that it was fraud or wire fraud. They can do it to anybody."

"This is like Nazi Germany," he insisted and that "once they're done with these guys, they're coming after you and I." [sic]

Right-wing talk radio doyenne and fellow Dartmouth graduate Laura Ingraham also leapt to D'Souza's defense, calling the charges against him "retribution justice."

The felony charges against D'Souza, she alleged, are "more about stifling political dissent and intimidating other people from speaking out than it is about any real serious allegation of wrongdoing."

D'Souza's election-year, anti-Obama propaganda film "2016: Obama's America" had made him into one of Obama's "most effective critics" and therefore, charges had to trumped up by the government to take him down.

Ingraham failed to mention whether D'Souza's forced resignation as president of a Christian college in 2013 over an extramarital affair with a much younger woman is part of the Obama administration's plot to silence him.

Meanwhile, Matt Drudge of the website Drudge Report bemoaned via Twitter that the Obama administration is "unleashing the dogs" on its critics. Former Tea Party congressman and alleged deadbeat dad Joe Walsh tweeted, "First Christie, second McDonnell, after that, D'Souza, then they came for...?"

Fox News' website called the charges against D'Souza "selective" enforcement of campaign laws and Rush Limbaugh chimed in on Thursday to say that the Obama administration is "trying to criminalize as many Republicans and conservatives as they can."

D'Souza was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday.