DSouza - Stealing America

A book is a hard thing to write. A good book is even harder. This, I hope you agree, is a good book. The following people helped a lot.

Bruce Schooley, my best friend and longtime co-conspirator

Ed McVaney, mentor, supporter, longtime friend

Danielle DSouza, my daughter, whiz kid, and confidante

Debbie Fancher, my heartthrob, collaborator, and happiness consultant

Aaron and Sonia Brubaker, whom I adore and rely on

Kimberly Dvorak, researcher par excellence

Adam Bellow, my editor and friend of twenty-five years

The Texas women who prayed for me throughout my confinement

Hey, Im not done yet. Without the following people, this book would not be possible.

My fellow convicts, who shared their lives and stories

Obama, the original con man

Holder, the henchman

Preet, Carrie, and the gang, the enforcement goons

Judge Richard Berman, who taught me more lessons than he intended

America: Imagine a World Without Her

Obamas America: Unmaking the American Dream

Godforsaken:
Bad Things Happen. Is There a God Who Cares?
Yes. Heres Proof.

The Roots of Obamas Rage

Life After Death: The Evidence

Whats So Great About Christianity

The Enemy at Home:
The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11

Letters to a Young Conservative

Whats So Great About America

The Virtue of Prosperity:
Finding Values in an Age of Techno-Affluence

Ronald Reagan:
How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader

The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society

Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus

DINESH DSOUZA is a number one New York Times bestselling author and the filmmaker behind the hit documentaries 2016: Obamas America and America , which are respectively the second-highest- and the sixth-highest-grossing political documentaries of all time. In his thirty-year career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual, DSouza has been a policy analyst in the Reagan White House and a John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His bestselling books include America , Obamas America , The Roots of Obamas Rage , Whats So Great About Christianity , and Illiberal Education .

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If a man wishes to be sure of the road hes traveling on, then he must close his eyes and travel in the dark.

John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul

T he mood in the courtroom was tense and electric as I entered, accompanied by my superstar lawyer Benjamin Brafman and another attorney, Alex Spiro. We were in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan, the offices of Judge Richard Berman. Brafman, with his elegant locks of hair brushed back, looked completely at home in this environment. I, on the other hand, was not.

I tried to look nonchalant, or at least expressionless. Inside, however, my heart was pounding with terror. In a very short time Id know if I was headed to federal prison. My crime? I had exceeded the campaign finance laws by convincing two of my friends to contribute $10,000 apiece to a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York; then I reimbursed them for their contribution. For thisI subsequently discoveredI could be prosecuted as a felon and sent away for up to two years. I had already pleaded guilty to the charge. Now I was going to find out whether the judge would give me a prison sentence.

My greatest fear was not prison itself. At Brafmans suggestion, I had hired a criminologist with extensive experience in the various federal prison camps. If you get prison, this fellow told me, its going to be a white-collar camp, most likely Taft or Lompoc in California. Youre going to be surrounded by accountants, lawyers, dentists, bureaucrats. All the others in there have proven themselves through good behavior. These are nonviolent criminals, just like you.

That partthe just like youjolted me. I almost didnt hear the rest. Youll have to work part-time, but youll have lots of free time. There is little contact with the outside world. No cell phones and no laptops. But you can send emails from a general computer that is monitored, and you can make three hundred minutes of phone calls per month, also monitored. Thats not much, but youll get used to it. Taft, the camp Id recommend for you, has pretty good facilities, a gym, a running track, a tennis court. Youre a writer, so do a lot of reading and writing. Ill help to prepare you for what to expect. If you stay busy, and use common sense, youll be fine.

Fine? I took that as an exaggeration. Even if there was little danger of being stabbed or raped, how can someone who is locked up for two years, without a phone and a laptop, and such limited contact with the outside world, be fine? My deepest fears were over my nineteen-year-old daughter. She, I knew, would be devastated. I had recently gone through a difficult divorce and unfortunately my daughters relationship with her mother had been, at least temporarily, severed. Even though my daughter was now in college, in terms of immediate family, I was all she had.