Friday, June 1, 2018
By Gary Bauer
The pardon of my old White House colleague Dinesh D'Souza is being lambasted today by the left-wing media as "political." But Trump is simply correcting what was a political prosecution.
Making excessive campaign donations historically results in fines. It rarely results in a criminal prosecution and jail time. We recently wrote about Rosie O'Donnell dodging legal donation limits, and yet there is no talk of prosecuting her.
D'Souza was a well-known outspoken critic of the Obama Administration. His prosecution was a prime example of "lawfare," using the law to target political opponents, which the left has been doing for decades.
The left is also howling over rumors that Trump may pardon Martha Stewart. It turns out that she was prosecuted by James Comey.
The power of a president to pardon individuals is extraordinarily broad. We were sadly reminded of that fact when Barack Obama pardoned a terrorist and Chelsea Manning, a traitor who leaked tremendous amounts of national security information.
The sudden interest in the president's pardon powers comes as he has bemoaned the lives ruined by the Mueller investigation. They have not been ruined because of collusion with Russia. They have been ruined by an overzealous prosecutor hoping to coerce them into making statements that can be used to bring down the administration.
The most notable example is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. It is not at all clear why he was indicted. The FBI agents who interviewed him did not think he lied. But his family has been crushed by legal expenses. Unlike Manning, Flynn is a hero who devoted his life to serving our country.
I have no inside information. But if this "witch hunt," as the president has called it, by Mueller and his team of liberal lawyers continues, it would not be surprising to see the president exercise his pardon power again.
Making excessive campaign donations historically results in fines. It rarely results in a criminal prosecution and jail time. We recently wrote about Rosie O'Donnell dodging legal donation limits, and yet there is no talk of prosecuting her.
D'Souza was a well-known outspoken critic of the Obama Administration. His prosecution was a prime example of "lawfare," using the law to target political opponents, which the left has been doing for decades.
The left is also howling over rumors that Trump may pardon Martha Stewart. It turns out that she was prosecuted by James Comey.
The power of a president to pardon individuals is extraordinarily broad. We were sadly reminded of that fact when Barack Obama pardoned a terrorist and Chelsea Manning, a traitor who leaked tremendous amounts of national security information.
The sudden interest in the president's pardon powers comes as he has bemoaned the lives ruined by the Mueller investigation. They have not been ruined because of collusion with Russia. They have been ruined by an overzealous prosecutor hoping to coerce them into making statements that can be used to bring down the administration.
The most notable example is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. It is not at all clear why he was indicted. The FBI agents who interviewed him did not think he lied. But his family has been crushed by legal expenses. Unlike Manning, Flynn is a hero who devoted his life to serving our country.
I have no inside information. But if this "witch hunt," as the president has called it, by Mueller and his team of liberal lawyers continues, it would not be surprising to see the president exercise his pardon power again.
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