Internet Rips Trump for Pardoning 'Vile, AntiSemitic' Political Ally One Day After Meeting on Prison Reform

Elizabeth Preza
and
 AlterNet
May 31, 2018

One day after meeting with Kim Kardashian West to discuss prison reform, Donald Trump on Thursday used his presidential pardon powers to right a perceived wrong in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Unfortunately, that “perceived wrong” did not pertain to Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother currently serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug crime and the reported subject of West’s meeting with the president. Instead, it related to Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative political ally of Trump, who was convicted of a campaign finance violation in 2014.

Trump’s decision to pardon D’Souza was viewed largely as a signal to longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, who currently faces an investigation into possible campaign finance violations, among other crimes.

Former Justice Department Spokesperson Matt Miller called the move a “naked abuse of the pardon power.”

And MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed out D’Souza parrots the same “vile, antisemitic” rhetoric as former ABC star Roseanne Barr.

Others on Twitter were equally as unforgiving. Read some of the responses below:

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