Trump to pardon pundit D’souza
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he would grant a full pardon on Thursday to conservative commentator Dinesh D’souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to federal campaign finance law violations.
The announcement drew criticism from some Democrats and legal analysts who said the Republican president had undermined the rule of law with a series of pardons based on political considerations.
“Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!” Trump said on Twitter. D’souza retweeted Trump’s tweet but did not comment otherwise.
D’souza, 53, admitted in May 2014 that he illegally reimbursed two “straw donors” who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 US Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.
He was sentenced to five years of probation. The government had urged a prison sentence of 10 to 16 months to discourage future abuse of the election process, including by “well-heeled individuals who are tempted to use their money to help other candidates.”
D’souza waited until “the last possible moment” before trial to admit guilt, the government said, then went on television shows and the Internet to say he was “selectively” targeted for prosecution.
In a statement before sentencing, D’souza said he was ashamed of his actions and contrite.
The case against D’souza, a critic of Democratic former president Barack Obama, prompted some conservatives to accuse the government of selective prosecution. The prosecutor in the case, US Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, was an Obama appointee.
D’souza was born in Mumbai and became a naturalised US citizen in 1991. He wrote the bestsellers “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” in 2010 and “America: Imagine a World Without Her” this year, and in 2012 co-directed the film “2016: Obama’s America.”
Bharara, who was fired by Trump three weeks into his presidency, said in a Twitter post: “The President has the right to pardon but the facts are these: D’souza intentionally broke the law, voluntarily pled guilty, apologised for his conduct & the judge found no unfairness. The career prosecutors and agents did their job.”