United States President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he would grant full pardon to Dinesh D’Souza, an Indian-American conservative political commentator and filmmaker who was convicted for making an illegal campaign contribution.
“Will give a full pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today,” Trump tweeted. “He was treated very unfairly by our government.”
In 2014, D’Souza pleaded guilty to reimbursing two of his associates after directing them to contribute $10,000 (Rs 6.74 lakh) each to the 2012 Senate campaign of Republican candidate Wendy Long, reported CNBC. He was sentenced to five years of probation, including eight months of supervised stay at a halfway house, and fined $30,000 (Rs 20.22 lakh), reported CNN.
At the time D’Souza made the contribution, individual Americans were prohibited from donating more than $5,000 (Rs 3.37 lakh) to a single candidate.
On Thursday, D’Souza said former US President Barack Obama and “his stooges” had tried to “extinguish” his American dream and destroy his faith in America, but Trump’s gesture had “fully restored both”.
D’Souza has released two documentaries titled 2016: Obama’s America and Hilary’s America.
Preet Bharara, who brought the charges against the political pundit when he was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the case was not unfair. “D’Souza intentionally broke the law, voluntarily pled guilty, apologised for his conduct [and] the judge found no unfairness,” he tweeted.
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