In today’s Corruption Watch News, I bring you this:
Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2018
Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. Now Trump will pardon him.
Reaction has been swift and severe, as it should be.
It is hard to overstate what a naked abuse of the pardon power it is for the president to use it almost exclusively to reward criminal members of his own party.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) May 31, 2018
Former Director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub thinks the pardon might be a signal to Trump’s former associates now under indictment.
Imagine if Nixon had been waiting with a stack of pardons for his Plumbers to return from the Watergate break-in. A president may not be above the law, but he has the power to put his henchmen above the law. That’s what Trump is telling Manafort & others with the D’Souza pardon.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 31, 2018
Law professor Joyce Alene agrees:
Dinesh D’Souza was convicted of one of the crimes Michael Cohen is under investigation for, campaign finance fraud. Impossible to view this as anything other than a “stay strong“ message from Trump to Cohen, especially given the timing. https://t.co/rtjNnF73wy
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) May 31, 2018
At the time, D’Souza admitted he committed the crime, saying
I knew that causing a campaign contribution to be made in the name of another was wrong and something the law forbids. I deeply regret my conduct.
He asked two other people to make contributions to the U.S. Senate campaign of Wendy Long which he promised to reimburse. He admitted he reimbursed those individuals.
D’Souza identifies as an evangelical and he is fiercely pro-Trump. Although he has been losing his luster as an evangelical intellectual since 2010, he is admired in pro-Trump circles.
Recently, he has become known for his incendiary remarks and fractured history. D’Souza has sparred with historian Kevin Kruse over political history (Kruse for the win). He supported Roy Moore for Senate and generally comes across as a bomb thrower.
Pro-Putin
D’Souza is also pro-Putin. He once tweeted his admiration of the Russian strongman.
What @realDonaldTrump admires about Putin is the way Putin–unlike someone else we know–LOVES his country & FIGHTS for its interests
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 14, 2016
D’Souza didn’t like my post about it so he did what any Trump supporter would do, he made fun of me and doubled down.
.@Patheos One Warren Throckmorton–a man as pompous as his name–goes into high dudgeon over my Putin tweet https://t.co/FEwtAB7GvQ
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 15, 2016
Great Victory?
Even though D’Souza admitted breaking campaign finance laws, he is celebrating as if he was the victim of a false accusation.
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
For some reason, Christians are celebrating this pardon. I understand we are all guilty of various things and in Christ, we are pardoned but our rejoicing isn’t to be gloating over others. The prosecutors did their jobs and the precious rule of law that Republicans go on about has been set aside. I agree with the first tweeter above, this appears to be an abuse of power and if Karma is indeed a bitch, there may be a day of reckoning in November.
Trump Really Thought it Through
There are no words to describe the lunacy of how Trump decided to pardon D’Souza.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 31, 2018