Susan Wright on the Right
Donald Trump is flexing his pardon power, and on Thursday, he announced he would be pardoning Dinesh D’Souza, an author and outspoken Trump loyalist, convicted in 2014 of campaign finance law violations.
During his trial, D’Souza pleaded guilty to using “straw donors” to illegally funnel money into the campaign of his friend, Wendy Long, who was running for Senate in 2012.
After his guilty plea, which was accompanied by an apology, where he said he knew what he did was wrong (it was a felony), D’Souza was sentenced to eight months in a halfway house, along with five years of probation.
He was in the middle of those five years when Trump made his announcement.
I covered the details of the pardon over at The Resurgent on Thursday.
Calling D’Souza a “victim of selective prosecution for violation of campaign finance laws” the White House announced a full pardon for the crimes D’Souza pleaded guilty to in 2014. He didn’t just plead guilty. He apologized and said he knew what he did was wrong.
“Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!” Trump wrote in a morning tweet as he traveled to Texas to attend political fundraisers.
President Trump really does seem to have a problem with our government being “unfair.”
Geez. He sounds just like one of those entitled, whiny liberals his devotees are always harping on about.
We can put aside, for the moment, that Dinesh D’Souza is just an awful character.
His social media timeline is chock-full of disgusting, obnoxious, even racist rhetoric.
Also, according to his first wife, who wrote a lengthy letter to the judge who was over his 2014 case, he was an adulterer and a domestic batterer. She alleged that he attacked her in 2012, kicking her in the head and shoulders and leaving her with lasting injuries.
Some are saying Trump’s pardon of D’Souza was to send a message. His crime was violation of campaign finance laws.
Who else is currently being charged with potentially violating campaign finance laws?
Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime “fixer” and personal attorney.
Of course, it may also be that Trump wanted to stick a thumb in the eye of Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who prosecuted D’Souza’s case.
Bharara, an Obama appointee, was fired three months into Trump’s term and has been a vocal critic of the president.
President Trump also signaled that pardons and commutations may be coming for others.
Martha Stewart, who was once a contestant on Trump’s reality show, “The Apprentice,” was convicted of obstruction, conspiracy, and with making false statements. Trump has signaled that a pardon is in her future.
Guess who prosecuted her case?
James Comey.
But back to D’Souza…
According to Trump, he didn’t know D’Souza and nobody asked him to pardon him.
As tends to be the norm with Donald Trump, that may not be the entire truth.
According to D’Souza, Texas Senator Ted Cruz may have been the driving force behind his pardon.
That’s right. In a conversation with the Daily Caller, D’Souza is giving credit for his pardon to Cruz.
D’Souza noted that he and his wife had dinner with Cruz approximately a month ago. At the dinner, the senator made clear he would push for a pardon during his conversations with President Donald Trump. D’Souza said he then received a call in recent days from Cruz, who told him Trump was very receptive to the pardon and that action could be coming imminently.
D’Souza took care to note that he did not push for a pardon or join any petitions circulating online because he thought it would be “unseemly” and because he was not a “Trumpster” during the Republican presidential primary campaign. He noted that Cruz was not the only person who pushed Trump for pardon and that other members of the president’s inner circle had done so.
“I did not feel entitled to a pardon” after Trump’s election, he said, adding that “my relief and elation is part of that.”
He did not feel entitled to a pardon?
He did, however, feel like taking a victory lap on social media.
KARMA IS A BITCH DEPT: @PreetBharara wanted to destroy a fellow Indian American to advance his career. Then he got fired & I got pardoned
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) May 31, 2018
Classy.
Speaking of his conversation with Trump:
The president called D’Souza late Thursday night to tell him of his decision and told him, “You’re a great voice for freedom, a great voice for America, and you got screwed,” D’Souza recounted to TheDC.
“I’m determined to set this right, Trump told D’Souza, “because of your influence and to make you an even greater voice for freedom.”
D’Souza called it Trump’s “gut sense for justice.”
No, that’s not ladling it on thick.
D’Souza noted that he does not maintain his innocence but that “I broke the law and should receive the same punishment as any American who does the same thing.”
Jared Kushner’s dad, Charles Kushner, got two years in federal prison for it. Of course, that was along with tax evasion and witness tampering, but still…
Senator Cruz celebrated the news of D’Souza’s pardon with a Twitter post.
A terrific day for Justice. @realDonaldTrump stood strong and did the right thing, and Heidi and I are celebrating with you and Dinesh. https://t.co/2RRbLaVu52
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 31, 2018
That’s fine, but let’s remember how Trump attacked Cruz, as well as his family during the primary. This acquiescence to Trump and his loyalists does not make Cruz seem like the noble man or conservative fighter many thought he was in 2016.
It’s shameful.
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