May 31, 2018

Trump Pardoning of Dinesh D’Souza May Be Another Signal for Loyalists in Russia Probe

“He was treated very unfairly by our government!”

Zach D Roberts/AP

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In a surprise announcement, President Donald Trump said over Twitter that he would pardon right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions back in 2014. He claimed in a tweet Thursday morning that D’Souza had been “treated very unfairly” by the government.

D’Souza has a long record of promoting far-right, racist conspiracy theories. His extremism traces back to his time as an editor of the Dartmouth Review, where he routinely outed gay classmates. From Mother Jones‘ David Corn:

Much of what D’Souza did in college as a rising conservative star foreshadowed the career of ideological nastiness to come. But relishing the outing of gay students (and at that luncheon there was much relishing) and engaging in dirty tricks to obtain those names—well, that speaks not to ideology, but character. And it is but one reason, even if now dusty, why D’Souza warrants little sympathy for being accused of once again breaking the rules to serve his ideological aims.

Some speculated that Trump’s announcement might be intended to show how he could use the pardon power in possible future cases related to his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen and others.

This is a breaking news post. We will update as more information becomes available.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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