Dinesh D’Souza was “treated very unfairly by our government” said outgoing president.
In one of his last acts as president, Donald Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, an Indian American writer, filmmaker and conservative political activist.
D’Souza, who was convicted of making illegal political contributions, had been “treated very unfairly by our government,” Trump said before leaving the White House Wednesday morning.
D’Souza was one of 73 people pardoned by Trump on the last day of his term. Seventy others had their sentences commuted.
READ: Trump to pardon Indian American conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza (June 1, 2018)
Mumbai-born D’Souza was convicted of illegally sending $20,000 in contributions to the senate campaign of former classmate, Wendy Long, by routing them through others to avoid the maximum limit on political funding.
He spent eight months in a halfway house — where those sentenced stay under strict restrictions in the prison-like facility while being allowed only to go to work or to other essential functions.
D’Souza, who is a conservative, has made movies critical of Democrats like “Obama’s America” based on his 2010 book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” attacking the former president.
READ: Dinesh D’Souza trolls Preet Bharara on twitter, gets trolled brutally (March 11, 2017)
Trump’s former political strategist Stephen Bannon, who had been charged with alleged fraud in connection with a private campaign to build a wall along the Mexican border to further Trump’s border wall promise was also pardoned on the last day.
Last month, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of his daughter Ivanka Trump. Kushner was convicted of tax fraud, retaliation against a witness and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
At that time another person close to Trump, 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, also received a pardon. He had been convicted of a financial fraud involving the former Soviet Union.