Dinesh D’Souza a mainstream conspiracy theorist was pardoned by President Donald Trump this week. The interesting part of this pardon was Dinesh was not serving a prison term, he was under probation till September 2019. That said, I can understand the President pardoning Dinesh. Dinesh is the Trump in filmmaking. He creates facts based on his belief system much like Michael Moore. However, it was great to see the reaction of his supporters and other Republicans after this.
President Donald Trump started the chaos by saying, “Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. He was treated very unfairly by our government!”. Ted Cruz followed soon with the tweet, “Dinesh was the subject of a political prosecution, brazenly targeted by the Obama administration bc of his political views. And he’s a powerful voice for freedom, systematically dismantling the lies of the Left—which is why they hate him. This is Justice.”. Finally, Dinesh himself joined in by saying, “Obama & his stooges tried to extinguish my American dream & destroy my faith in America,” he tweeted. “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for fully restoring both.”
I am not bothered by the pardon as Dinesh wasn’t necessarily suffering any prison time. There are three key dangerous precedences with the above statements.
- One of the dangers of executive power is the frivolous use of pardons for political purposes
- Continuing to blame and attack past administration, especially Obama’s with venom never seen prior
- Unable to acknowledge the independence of the judiciary
Before I go into the above concerns, I want to state the facts here.
- The US Federal Election Commission caps donations to individual candidates to a maximum of $2,700 per election
- Dinesh D’Souza pleaded guilty to using straw donors to make $20,000 in illegal contributions to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long in 2012. This is a case of felony.
- Richard Berman was the judge at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan where the case was heard. Such felony cases carry a maximum prison sentence of two years.
- Sen. Ted Cruz back then said “Dinesh D’Souza, who did a very big movie criticizing the president, is now being prosecuted by this Administration”
- Judge Berman sentenced Dinesh to five years of probation, including eight months living under supervision in a “community confinement centre” in San Diego and a $30,000 fine.
- While pronouncing Dinesh with the least possible sentence, Judge called Dinesh’s claim of his being a political persecution (in spite of admitting guilt) as “nonsense”.
Dinesh after the judgement said “I’m just happy I can pay my debt to society and get on with my work”
Using the above facts, I am unable to see the political vendetta here. Now, let me elaborate on my concerns.
The Executive powers are vested in the executive branch to enable the president handle emergencies and exceptional situations. Donald Trump has taken a cue from his predecessors on using this power and stepped it up to a new level. This is borderline authoritarian.
I am not a fan of Barack Obama’s policies. However, Republicans’ have smeared him with accusations that a baseless and loathsome. One must remember all the things Donald Trump has said about Obama, including asking for this birth certificate. The hatred towards Obama is unprecedented and I frankly can’t see a reason to support Trump just for that one reason. Further, continuing to badger him at every step is despicable. It also sets precedence for shaming opponents and is uncivil. Obama’s lack of influence on this case can be seen from the facts above.
Lastly, an elected official should respect or at least acknowledge the independence of the judiciary. The Judges could have been selected by an administration but they act independently. The government cannot influence a judgement. Such statements are either a gross misunderstanding of the judicial setup or a call for more executive authority to influence the judiciary. This is a risk to one of the key principles of the democratic republic system, checks and balances.
I also want to touch upon the accusation on Rosie O’Donnell’s offence. Rosie apparently donated more to democratic campaign than the legal limit. There is one crucial difference here. She did it herself and didn’t use straw donors. She didn’t hide it which gives her an excuse. I still suggest you can try her in court as she has already admitted doing it. That doesn’t exonerate Dinesh, a conspiracy theorist and a liar.
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