From Frances Langum:
But this story is NOT about douchebag Dinesh.
It’s about Michael Cohen. And sending him a message to “stay strong” and not flip. (I don’t know how that works if Cohen is facing state charges in New York but maybe Trump forgot about that.) And on Stephanie Ruhle’s program, legal analyst Seth Waxman didn’t sugarcoat it:
SETH WAXMAN: Could this be any more transparent? His fixer for ten years is alleged to be involved in passing campaign contributions from others through to his campaign in the context of Stormy Daniels or passing Russian funds through, and then kind of out of nowhere, Mr. Trump pardons D’souza who is accused of doing just that. I can’t see this as anything other than trying to send information–Donald Trump to say “I will take care of you in the future, just stand by me.”
Add “abuse of power” to the impeachable offenses, folks.
Trump said he had never met D’Souza, instead learning about him entirely by watching cable news. That’s more than a red flag on its own.
But D’Souza was guilty. He tried to argue that he was treated unfairly, but the judge dismissed his arguments on quite solid grounds: the government had prosecuted other straw buyers, both Republican and Democrat, and D’Souza presented no evidence of discrimination. Furthermore, his sentence wasn’t excessive.
And what did D’Souza do after hearing about the pardon? He attacked Obama and Bharara again, claiming, “KARMA IS A BITCH.” So much for contrition.
Trump and D’Souza both love to play the martyr as they do wrong. Whether they do it out of genuine stupidity and arrogance or because they know that it brings in the money and support, they are despicable.