Trump’s Pardoning of Right Wing Pundit Dinesh D’Souza Sparks Outrage, Mockery, Sadness

If you’re old enough to remember, Dinesh D’Souza was once considered something of a conservative luminary. That is, before he plead guilty to using straw donors to make illegal contributions to Wendy Long‘s unsuccessful senate campaign in 2012.

Entering his new life as a convicted felon, D’Souza dropped the conservative intellectual schtick and embraced his new life as a full blown right-wing troll.

Since, he has mocked survivors of a school shooting, praised Hitler, used photos of deceased soldiers without permission to dunk on NFL anthem protestors, hawked conspiracies about Obama’s family and the sex life of his mother, claimed the deadly Charlottesville protest was staged… the list goes on.

But if you kiss Trump’s ass vociferously enough, you might just snag a pardon. Just ask concentration camp warden Joe Arpaio.

Twitter had a torrent of emotions in response to the latest pardon, in which a man convicted of election fraud was pardoned by a president who constantly touts the unfounded claim such fraud is an urgent epidemic.

Accusing millions of people of voting illegally with zero evidence while pardoning someone who confessed to using straw donors to make illegal contributions https://t.co/RdZcmYWlPk

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) May 31, 2018

Trump is making it a routine to go around usual DOJ procedures and pardon allies who are popular on the right. In other news, his personal attorney, former NSA, top former campaign officials, and foreign policy adviser are enmeshed in a major criminal investigation right now.

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) May 31, 2018

Not that it affects the legal case, but Dinesh D’Souza’s twitter feed looks like Roseanne’s x 1,000 and is what he’s been known for in recent years. There’s a separate message getting sent there too with this pardon. https://t.co/aDKjkqYiXT

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) May 31, 2018

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

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 31, 2018

Kim going to Washington to lobby for prison reform only to see Trump wake up and pardon Dinesh D’Souza must be stressful.

— Craig Bro Dude (@CraigSJ) May 31, 2018

Here’s who Kim Kardashian was meeting Trump on behalf of: a 62-year-old grandmother serving life in federal prison for crack cocaine https://t.co/NemdjrsAm3

Anyway, congrats to Dinesh on being the first Dartmouth Man to receive a presidential pardon for campaign finance fraud.

— CJ Ciaramella (@cjciaramella) May 31, 2018

If Dinesh D’Souza hadn’t been unfairly sent to prison, he never would have met his cellmate buddies who explained that Democrats were in fact the Real Racists

— Rob Rousseau (@robrousseau) May 31, 2018

Trump’s Dinesh D’Souza pardon today, on top of his pardons of Scooter Libby and Joe Arpaio, make sense only as an elephant-whistle to Michael Cohen & all who know damning things about Trump: protect me & I’ll have your back. Turn on me & your goose is cooked. More obstruction!

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) May 31, 2018

.@PreetBharara in 2014 said D’Souza’s illegal campaign contributions was “wilfully undermining the integrity of the campaign finance process…he has had to answer for this crime – here with a felony conviction.” https://t.co/KwDZYyy7P9

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 31, 2018

Dinesh D’Souza was convicted of one of the crimes Michael Cohen is under investigation for, campaign finance fraud. Impossible to view this as anything other than a “stay strong“ message from Trump to Cohen, especially given the timing. https://t.co/rtjNnF73wy

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) May 31, 2018

Keep trying to write out tweets about the D’Souza pardon, keep deleting them.

I think my basic stance is this: Dinesh D’Souza is a sleazebag.

— Jeff B. (@EsotericCD) May 31, 2018

the party of law and order strikes again https://t.co/EXhX1JqAId

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) May 31, 2018

Oh look: the man the president pardoned and who Ted Cruz just praised, fomenting the same vile anti-semitic lie that Roseanne was tweeting. What a coincidence! https://t.co/kASRrtWwtM

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 31, 2018

Among other things, Dinesh D’Souza has authored gross speculations about Barack Obama’s mother’s sex life. https://t.co/sVRNuTJIvh

— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) May 31, 2018

Kardashian gets results. https://t.co/oQ0hqIICNh

— Sasha Issenberg (@sissenberg) May 31, 2018

So I guess today is Dinesh Day on Twitter. Bye everybody

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) May 31, 2018

Ted Cruz also weighed in, applauding the president for the pardon. (Remember when Trump said Cruz’s dad killed JFK and called his wife ugly? Good times):

Bravo! @realDonaldTrump 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. https://t.co/cGHzcgwSnK

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 31, 2018

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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