Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza can stop attending therapy sessions, but must continue his court-ordered community service during his five-year probationary period,
the New York Post reports.
D'Souza's lawyer Ben Brafman asked Judge Richard Berman during a status conference on Thursday if the therapy sessions could be dropped.
"The therapist indicated that he no longer needs therapy. We'd ask Your Honor to suspend that condition of probation," Brafman told the judge.
"The therapy was never intended as a punishment," Berman responded. "Therapy doesn't work if sides aren't interested. Whether I think therapy is valuable or not, it won't be valuable if the participants don't think it's valuable."
The judge had issued weekly sessions of "therapeudic counseling" as part of D'Souza's sentence for campaign finance violations. D'Souza admitted to donating funds in the names of others to his friend Wendy Long in her unsuccessful bid to unseat New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
D'Souza's $20,000 in donations exceeded the legal limit one person can donate to a campaign.
Two psychologists had previously said D'Souza did not need counseling over the issue, but the judge ordered it anyway.