On Thursday, President Donald Trump pardoned Dinesh D'Souza, who was
convicted of breaking campaign finance laws in 2012
by using straw donors to raise $20,000 for his friend Wendy Long,
who was running for a U.S. Senate seat. He paid a $30,000 fine,
spent eight months partially confined, and had nearly completed
five years probation when Trump announced the pardon on Twitter.
Trump agreed with D'Souza, who maintained that he was singled out
for prosecution because of '2016 Obama's America,'
his critical look at President Barack Obama that became the
second-most-successful political documentary in history.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter's Paul Bond, D'Souza reveals
what he and Trump spoke about when the president
called to tell him he was being pardoned. D'Souza explains:
"He said I was a great voice for America, then he says:
'You were screwed,' his word. He said, 'These people went after you for a
mere technicality. I'm going to set that right and clear your record
so that you can be an even more visible voice for the country than
you are now.'" Elaborating further on Trump's theory
that D'Souza got "screwed," the filmmaker continues,
"He knows it was politically motivated. I don't want to put words in
his mouth because I don't remember exactly what he said,
but he said: 'They went after you, and they shafted you.'
Why would they do this? Obviously because I made a movie
critical of Obama."
Given that D'Souza pled guilty, many may wonder
how he can claim to have been shafted. "The punishment should fit the crime.
I should receive the penalty others get. No American has been prosecuted,
let alone locked up, for doing what I did." He continues,
"To go after them for a felony and essentially try to destroy their life?
That's unprecedented. It's like going 90 miles an hour on the
freeway and being sentenced to five years in prison."
D'Souza explains that while his eight month stint in an overnight
confinement center in San Diego is over, he is still on probation,
needs to complete five years of community service,
and needs permission from a judge to travel outside the country.
"The pardon brings all this to an end and, most importantly, clears my record,"
D'Souza says. "So I can vote, own a firearm, all my rights are restored."
When asked if anything positive came out of his eight month
partial incarceration, the filmmaker has this response.
"I have a somewhat providential view of life and look at things as if they
serve a purpose," he says. "I'm a better man for it, so in that sense, I
don't regret it. But it's been an ordeal and emotionally painful
and financially expensive." Finally, D'Souza, who is in final
edits for his latest film 'Death of a Nation,'
reveals what he has to say to Barack Obama.
"He's revealed himself to be a petty, narcissistic guy," D'Souza says.
"My movie didn't just criticize him politically, it got into his life
and into his head. So he unleashed his goons, in this case
Eric Holder and prosecutor Preet Bharara, who tweeted today
that I did voluntarily plead guilty." He concludes, saying,
"People who plead guilty voluntarily are not doing so 'voluntarily.'
In my case they filed a charge that carried a maximum penalty of
two years and another that carries five years and said they'd
drop the second charge if I pled guilty to the first.
So the whole thing is a sham. They positioned it like a show trial where
I broke down and confessed when actually I was bludgeoned."
To read Paul Bond's full interview with Dinesh D'Souza, head to THR.com.
For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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