TRUMP PARDONS INDIANORIGIN RIGHT WING PUNDIT D’SOUZA

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will grant a full pardon to controversial Indian American conservative pundit Dinesh D’souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating campaign funding laws.

“Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’souza today,” Trump tweeted on Thursday. “He was treated very unfairly by our government!”

This is Trump’s fifth pardon. Beneficiaries include controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt of court, and Scooter Libby, a George W Bush White House staffer convicted in 2007 of leaking the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

D’souza’s pardon is also possibly the first for an Indian American. He came to the US as a student from Mumbai and went on to work in the Reagan White House.

He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws by using “straw donors” to contribute more money than allowed, to the campaign of Wendy Long, who was running for New York state senate. He had reimbursed these “straw donors” for their contributions.

Another person Trump is reportedly considering pardoning is Martha Stewart, the businesswoman famous for her lifestyle brand, who the president has said had been “harshly” treated.

In 2004, Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months under house arrest for lying to federal investigators about a stock sale.