Dinesh D'Souza: Trump 'will give full pardon' to right-wing theorist for campaign finance violations

President Donald Trump has pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing author, filmmaker, and commentator who pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws four years ago.

Mr Trump announced the pardon view tweet, saying Mr D'Souza was "treated very unfairly by our government!"

The filmmaker tweeted his gratitude, writing: "Obama & his stooges tried to extinguish my American dream & destroy my faith in America. Thank you @realDonaldTrump for fully restoring both."

Mr D'Souza was charged in 2014 with illegally arranging for two people to donate to a Republican Senate candidate. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years of probation.

His conviction was announced by Preet Bharara – the former US attorney who Mr Trump fired shortly after taking office. Mr Bharara slammed the decision to pardon Mr D'Souza a tweet, pushing back at a White House spokesman's suggestion that the activist had been subject to "selective prosecution".

"D'Souza intentionally broke the law, voluntarily pled guilty, apologised for his conduct & the judge found no unfairness," Mr Bharara wrote. "The career prosecutors and agents did their job. Period."

The decision to pardon Mr D'Souza was celebrated by conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz, but criticised by liberal watchdog groups like Every Voice, which tracks money in politics.

"Donald Trump has sent a message to his friends and cronies that if you break laws to protect him or attack our democracy, he’s got your back,” said Every Voice CEO David Donnelly in a statement.

Mr Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is also under investigation for possible campaign finance violations, according to the New York Times.

Mr D'Souza is best known for his conspiracy-laden, conservative documentaries and books, though he also served briefly in President Ronald Reagan's administration and as a fellow of several prominent, right-wing think tanks. His 2016 documentary Hillary's America attempted to tie the modern-day Democratic Party to slavery and the Ku Klux Klan. It was widely panned and discredited at the time of its release.

Mr D'Souza drew criticism earlier this year for a tweet mocking teenage survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. He retweeted a photo of the students crying after an assault weapons ban failed to pass the state Senate, and wrote: "Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs."

The conservative firebrand has also previously suggested that the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia was staged, and promoted the conspiracy theory that the suspect in a Las Vegas mass shooting was an anti-Trump activist.

This is Mr Trump's fifth pardon since taking office. Previous pardons included deceased boxer Jack Johnson and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court last year for falling to stop racial profiling in his department.

Mr Trump also met recently with fellow reality star Kim Kardashian to discuss a possible pardon for Alice Marie Johnson, a 62-year-old serving a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offence.