For those of you who live normal lives and aren’t attuned to the ravings of every lunatic with a platform on the internet, here’s a quick primer on the human trash pile that is Trump’s newest pardonee: Dinesh D’Souza.
The past year, Dinesh D’Souza has: —Suggested the Charlottesville rally was staged —Shared a meme calling Obama a “gay Muslim” —Suggested Michelle Obama is a man —Started a conspiracy theory about the Vegas shooting —Defended Adolf Hitler as “NOT anti-gay”https://t.co/YqI4oO2L5r
President Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, a right-wing commentator who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations.
D’Souza has: mocked Parkland survivors defended Hitler for being “NOT anti-gay” – suggested the white supremacist Charlottesville rally was “staged” pic.twitter.com/i5ojFaTcD5
D’Souza is such a hack that CPAC, a conservative conference which helped give rise to Trump, uninvited him this year (D’Souza still is on the National Review‘s masthead though). So if you’re wondering why our white supremaPOTUS thought to pardon him, what got him banished from this year’s CPAC is basically why. It honestly doesn’t have anything to do with his crime since his crime has nothing to do with Trump. In 2014, D’Souza pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony charge of an illegal contribution to Wendy Long’s Senate campaign. This is how Trump framed his guilty plea.
Trump then went on to hint that he may pardon Martha Stewart, and also may commute the sentence of disgraced former Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich—who was impeached, removed, then sentenced to 14 years in prison for rank corruption, like auctioning off Barack Obama’s empty Senate seat. Stewart would be Trump’s sixth pardon.
Pardons by @POTUS since taking office: [1] Aug 2017: Sheriff Joe Arpaio [2] Mar 2018: Navy sailor Kristian Saucier [3] Apr 2018: Former Cheney Chief of Staff Scooter Libby [4] May 2018: Late boxer Jack Johnson [5] May 2018: Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza https://t.co/6UQk6PwIzH
— Fox News Research (@FoxNewsResearch) May 31, 2018
If you’re confused about all this, don’t worry. We all are. That’s simply the status quo in the age of Trump. Luckily, defense lawyer Ken White—known on Twitter on Popehat—explained what all these pardons really seem to mean. Given how often he appears in court opposite the government, the tingling in his spidey senses is instructive here.
/2 The Libby pardon and rumored Stewart pardon say “the government abuses its ability to prosecute people for lies and obstruction when being investigated.” That message is obviously helpful to his team. It’s true, to some extent, though he’s not a credible or sincere proponent.
/4 The rumored Blagojevich pardon, and to some extent the Libby and Arpaio pardons, say “partisan political maneuvering isn’t criminal,” which again is a message that serves his team in the current investigation very well.
/6 Mostly, though, the consistent message is to his current and former allies, saying “I have your back” — hoping they will not cooperate against him or against other allies. He’s not sincerely against political/excessive prosecutions at all. They’re in his stump speech. /end
It’s a fine theory, and given that Trump is perpetually consumed by the Russia inquiry, it’s certainly plausible that this is all a setup for the far more harrowing pardons down the road. However, as one of White’s Twitter followers pointed out, our TV president may not have any real plan past his own personal grievances and the last Fox News segment rattling around in the back of his addled brain.
Pretty sure Libby’s pardon was preceded by a Fox News segment. Dinesh was prosecuted by Preet, Stewart by Comey.
Rather than a well-thought out master plan, Trump vould just be randomly pardoning out of revenge and/or based off of what segments he sees on television.
Like the rest of the Trump presidency, it’s nearly impossible to delineate where rank incompetence ends and genuine intent begins. For Trump, they are one and the same.
Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.
