opinion

Montini: Trump's pardon of Dinesh D’Souza sends reassuring message to Mueller targets

Why would President Donald Trump grant a pardon to a convicted felon who admitted to his crime, a man who has mocked the survivors of the Florida high school massacre, defended Hitler, promoted disproved conspiracy theories and ridiculed the former president and his wife with racist comments?

Easy.

Self-preservation.

By pardoning the vile Dinesh D’Souza the president may well be sending a message to his current and former employers – those under indictment and those who may be under indictment soon. He may be letting them know that he will take care of them if they don’t cooperate with special counsel Robert Muller.

Protecting one criminal - or many?

D’Souza is a criminal.

He violated federal campaign finance laws by getting associates to donate money to a senatorial campaign and then reimbursing them. He knew it was a crime. He was caught red-handed and he admitted to the felony.

He is not a victim.

Victim or victimizer?

If there are any victims in the story they would be people like the student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting, whom D’Souza mocked.

When the students' lobbying effort for gun regulation failed in the Florida legislature D’Souza tweeted:

D'Souza also insulted any family who suffered under the Nazis during World War II when defended Hitler in a tweet:

Not anti-gay? Can you imagine anyone debasing the tens of thousands of gay individuals sent to death camps and those who were the subject of sadistic medical procedures under the Nazis?

Then there were D’Sousa’s ignorant racist remarks about President Obama like when he tweeted:

It goes on and on.

Given the fact that Trump pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio it probably shouldn’t surprise us that he’d pardon someone like D’Souza. Just as it shouldn’t surprise us that D’Souza is a big backer of Trump.

But it’s more likely that Trump could care less about D’Souza and is sending a message to members of the Washington, D.C., branch of the "Future Felons of America" club who are (or were) part of the president's inner circle.

Or, as Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe tweeted:

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