The ignorant shrieking of the media baboons. I can’t take it anymore.
“Mr. D’Souza was, in the President’s opinion, a victim of selective prosecution for violations of campaign finance laws. Mr. D’Souza accepted responsibility for his actions, and also completed community service by teaching English to citizens and immigrants seeking citizenship,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement, adding “in light of these facts, the President has determined that Mr. D’Souza is fully worthy of this pardon.”
Prosecution was brought by Chuck Schumer’s former aid Preet Bharara. As Ed Morrissey notes, this sort of strawman donation is a very common crime which is very rarely — if ever — prosecuted as a crime. Usually it’s punished by a civil suit and fine. But Preet Bharara was looking for a scalp. Even a fan of Bharara’s, Alan Derschowitz, said this smacked of “selective prosecution.”
He quotes from the Wall Street Journal:
“The idea of charging him with a felony for this doesn’t sound like a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Mr. Dershowitz said. “I can’t help but think that [D’Souza’s] politics have something to do with it. . . . It smacks of selective prosecution.” …Mr. Dershowitz said the world of politics is rife with the sort of campaign abuses alleged. They’re so common, in fact, he said he himself been called upon to participate in similar arrangements. Mr. Dershowitz said he’s spoken with Mr. D’Souza since the indictment was announced.
No word yet on any prosecutions of Rosie O’Donnell for repeatedly evading federal donation limits by using alternate forms of her name and alternate addresses, which just so happened to have the consequence of not being picked up on by software designed to reject donations that exceed the legal limit.
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
The media is shrieking about this — because of course they are — and claiming that Obama and Bill Clinton never gave out such dubious pardons.
They conveniently forget that Obama pardoned the traitor Bradley Manning — despite Manning never showing remorse for his actions, which is generally a requirement for a pardon (absent actual innocence) — and also pardoned the terrorist bomber Oscar Lopez Rivera, just because Hispanics are an important part of his political coalition. (Lopez Rivera also shows no remorse, and is proud of his terrorism and bombing.)