Trump met with (of all people) Kim Kardashian on Wednesday to discuss prison reform. During that meeting, the reality TV star asked the reality TV show host to pardon a 65-year-old woman named Alice Johnson who has served more than 20 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that he would be granting a pardon…to Dinesh D’Souza.
D’Souza was convicted after pleading guilty in 2014 to knowingly committing election fraud. According to POLITICO:
‘Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza entered a guilty plea Tuesday to a charge that he used straw donors to make $20,000 in illegal contributions to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long in 2012, officials said.’
He is not currently in prison nor does he seem to be suffering in any way as conservative voters and the rest of the Fox News crowd are still fans and happily consume all of his conspiracy theory-laden books and documentaries, for which D’Souza is still paid a lot of money.
Somehow, Trump believes that the conviction was some government conspiracy against conservatives despite the guilty plea and the fact that “the government” does not sentence criminals. The courts do.
In recent days, Trump’s supporters have tried to compare D’Souza’s felony to some over-the-limit donations by former TV talk show host Rosie O’Donnell, who donated about $900 or less over the limit to Democratic candidates.
The NY Post quoted O’Donnell as saying:
‘Nothing nefarious. I was not choosing to over donate. If 2700 is the cut off — [candidates] should refund the money. I don’t look to see who I can donate most to … I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.’
The difference between O’Donnell and D’Souza is quite obvious: D’Souza admitted to creating a straw fund to knowingly donate tens of thousands of dollars to GOP candidates to cover up the crime. In O’Donnell’s case, intent to commit voter fraud cannot be proven and doesn’t seem to be apparent at all. No matter, the Trumpeters will continue to push the false equivalency, anyway.
Twitter, however, was not impressed with Trump’s pardon. See some of their responses below.
Featured image via Getty/Alex Wong
