D’Souza’s new movie, America, produced by Oscar winner Gerald Molen and John Sullivan, will debut in July.
D’Souza was indicted for violating federal election laws in January by the Department of Justice. Many saw the move as pure political payback against an outspoken critic of President Obama. On Tuesday, D’Souza appeared in court with his attorney in New York City, who signaled his client was prepared to go to trial.
D’Souza’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, told World magazine, “My guess is we’ll see you at the trial… There is not a scintilla of evidence that this was a corrupt endeavor by Mr. D’Souza.” The federal indictment was filed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, “an Obama donor who was appointed by the President.”
D’Souza did not appear to be intimidated by his legal battle. “We are in a moment in America where we are facing a crisis of leadership,” D’Souza told the crowd. He added that “we need right now a Washington, a Lincoln, a Reagan. Well we don’t have them but we do have us.”
An immigrant to America from India, D’Souza recalled, “I was seventeen years old when I first set eyes on America… Even then I knew I could be the architect of my own destiny.”
“We are living in the American era, an era that began at the end of World War II, but this moment is very fragile,” D’Souza said, noting that America is facing challenges internationally in the rise of Islamic terrorism and Russian attempts to reconstruct its former empire.
“The remarkable thing is not what’s going on over there, but the response here,” D’Souza stated, claiming that President Obama is intentionally working to diminish America’s role in the world.
“It’s a great mistake to understand Obama as a mere amateur… The point about Obama is he is somebody who wants to shrink America’s footprint in the world,” D’Souza claimed. He added that “he [Obama] is a creature of ideology.”
Of his new documentary, D’Souza said “it’s a spectacular film… Underlying it is taking on the central argument of progressivism… This argument at its core is a moral indictment of America and the free market system…Â We make the moral case [in our movie] for America, for free markets, in a fresh way you haven’t heard before.”
D’Souza concluded his remarks by encouraging his audience to “resolve right here right now that liberty is our choice.”
