Dinesh D’Souza. Photo courtesy of Variety.
Summary: President Donald Trump may issue three high-profile pardons soon.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump said he plans to pardon conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza. D’Souza was convicted in 2014 of making an illegal campaign contribution.
According to CNBC, “D’Souza pleaded guilty in 2014 to reimbursing two of his associates after directing them to contribute $10,000 each to the failed 2012 U.S. Senate campaign of Wendy Long in New York. He also admitted that he knew what he was doing violated the law.”
In a Thursday tweet, President Trump said D’Souza was “treated very unfairly by our government!” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders added that D’Souza was “a victim of selective prosecution for violations of campaign finance laws.”
These statements were rebuked by then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who prosecuted D’Souza.
“Dinesh D’Souza attempted to illegally contribute over $10,000 to a Senate campaign, willfully undermining the integrity of the campaign finance process,” Bharara said. “Like many others before him, of all political stripes, he has had to answer for this crime – here with a felony conviction.”
D’Souza has been on the record that he felt he was prosecuted during President Barack Obama’s era because he was a conservative.
Trump said on Thursday that he was also considering pardoning Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich, two people who both appeared on seasons of Trump’s reality show, The Celebrity Apprentice.
Stewart was convicted in 2004 of obstruction and justice and of lying to investigators about possible insider trading. She served five months in jail.
Blagojevich was the Democrat governor of Illinois who was convicted of bribery and corruption. He is currently in prison and has already served 14 years.
Stewart was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, James Comey, who later went on to lead the FBI. In 2017, Trump fired Comey because he was in charge of an investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia, and the two men have publicly warred with each other ever since. After Comey’s firing, Special Counsel Robert Mueller was hired to take over the probe.
Blagojevich appeared on Donald Trump’s popular reality TV show The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010, and later that year, he was convicted of attempting to sell President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. His case was brought on by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, and Fitzgerald is now a member of Comey’s legal team.
Trump has so far issued pardons for deceased boxer Jack Johnson, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, former US navy sailor Kristian Mark Saucier, and former Dick Cheney advisor Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
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