--- title: President Trump Plans Pardon for Dinesh D'Souza. Who Is He? description: D'Souza has for decades thrived as an incendiary mouthpiece for a hardline fringe faction of the American right. canonical: https://time.com/5297000/who-is-dinesh-dsouza/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-31T14:46:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:26:11.244Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says He's Pardoning Dinesh D'Souza. Who's That? og:description: 'He was treated very unfairly by our government,' Trump said og:url: https://time.com/5297000/who-is-dinesh-dsouza/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3261dc9148064c44/698931ed22fb855e68e25c63/gettyimages-546360754.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "Hillary's America" - Los Angeles Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says He's Pardoning Dinesh D'Souza. Who's That? twitter:description: 'He was treated very unfairly by our government,' Trump said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3261dc9148064c44/698931ed22fb855e68e25c63/gettyimages-546360754.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says He's Pardoning Dinesh D'Souza. Who's That, and What Did He Do? > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=98619021-fb54-4ac6-a421-9f72d4b2a85f&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins May 31, 2018 2:46 PM UTC  Dinesh D'Souza arrives for the Los Angeles Premiere of "Hillary's America," at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on July 11, 2016 in Hollywood, California. Dinesh D'Souza arrives for the Los Angeles Premiere of "Hillary's America," at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on July 11, 2016 in Hollywood, California. Gabriel Olsen—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins May 31, 2018 2:46 PM UTC President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would be issuing a “full pardon” to Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative pundit who, in Trump’s words, was “treated very unfairly by our government.” The decision sent shockwaves through the political world — D’Souza has for decades thrived as an incendiary mouthpiece for a hardline fringe faction of the American right. He was convicted in 2014 of making illegal campaign donations to a New York Republican and sentenced to five years probation, eight months in a halfway house, and a fine of $30,000. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1002177521599860736) **Who is Dinesh D’Souza?** Arguably one of the most prominent right-wing commentators in recent memory. An outspoken conservative since his undergraduate days at Dartmouth College in the early 1980s, D’Souza — born in Mumbai to an Indian Catholic family — was a onetime advisor in the Ronald Reagan White House. D’Souza eventually discarded his more classically liberal conservatism for a caustic and conspiratorial strain of rhetoric. His star in this vein rose to new heights during the Obama administration, which he cast in his political work as a diabolical anti-colonialist engine designed to cripple the United States. This was more or less the thesis of his [2012 documentary](http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/30/why-is-dinesh-dsouza-so-angry-with-obama/), _2016: Obama’s America,_ which proved immensely popular with some conservative audiences. His most recent book, 2017’s _The Big Lie,_ attempts to articulate what he calls the “Nazi roots of the American left.” D’Souza is 57 years old, married to Deborah Fancher and has one child. **What crimes did Dinesh D’Souza commit?** D’Souza was [indicted](http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/23/pundit-dinesh-dsouza-indicted-for-illegal-campaign-donations/) in 2014 for violations of campaign finance laws. Authorities said that he encouraged individuals to donate $20,000 to an unnamed political candidate — later revealed to be the New York Republican Wendy Long, who was challenging Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand for her Senate seat — which exceeded the federal campaign donation cap of $5,000\. D’Souza pled guilty in May 2014, but did not face prison time. The conservative punditocracy was swift to portray D’Souza’s indictment as an exercise in political persecution. One [Breitbart News](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/15/the-political-persecution-of-dinesh-dsouza/) story from 2015 compared his sentencing — he spent eight months in a halfway house and was required to attend counseling in lieu of jail — to Maoism. This is not a view restricted to the fringe. On Thursday morning, after Trump announced the pardon, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted that “Dinesh was the subject of a political prosecution, brazenly targeted by the Obama administration \[because\] of his political views.” “And he’s a powerful voice for freedom, systematically dismantling the lies of the Left—which is why they hate him,” Cruz wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1002181080349380608) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5297000/who-is-dinesh-dsouza/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5297000/who-is-dinesh-dsouza/"},"headline":"President Trump Says He's Pardoning Dinesh D'Souza. Who's That, and What Did He Do?","datePublished":"2018-05-31T14:46:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:26:11.244Z","description":"'Will be giving a Full Pardon to Dinesh D’Souza today. 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