<p>Indian-American filmmaker and conservative commentator Dinesh D&rsquo;Souza received a surprise call Thursday from President Trump, who decided to pardon him for an illegal campaign contribution he made to New York Senate candidate Wendy Long in 2012.</p>
<p>D&rsquo;Souza in 2014 pleaded guilty to $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions. He later told reporters that prosecutors had forced him to plead guilty by threatening to charge him with the crime of filing false documents, which carried a more severe sentence. ;</p>
<p>D&rsquo;Souza&rsquo;s crime ;was an infraction, ;similar to what professional &ldquo;bundlers&rdquo; do, but he was charged with a felony, hit with a $30,000 fine, and forced to spend eight months living in a halfway house with hardened criminals. After that, he was sentenced to five years probation and ;community service. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Dinesh was the subject of a political prosecution, brazenly targeted by the Obama Administration bc of his political views,&rdquo; tweeted Ted Cruz (R-TX). &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s a powerful voice for freedom, systematically dismantling the lies of the Left &#8211; which is why they hate him. This is Justice.&#8221;</p>
<p>D&rsquo;Souza, a controversialist with more than a few enemies, believes he was targeted by the Obama Justice Department for a 2010 book (and 2012 documentary) which suggests Obama was ;an anti-colonialist trying to reduce America&rsquo;s global power. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;What happened here is that Obama and his team&hellip;these guys decided to make one ;example of me, and I think the reason for this was Obama&rsquo;s anger over my movie that I made about him,&rdquo; said D&rsquo;Souza. &ldquo;This was a vindictive political hit that was aimed at putting me out of business.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Trump on Thursday said D&rsquo;Souza had been &ldquo;treated very unfairly by our government.&rdquo; In his phone call, Trump told D&#8217;Souza he ;&ldquo;should have gotten a fine, but these people went after you hammer and tong. It&rsquo;s outrageous.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Trump&rsquo;s decision to pardon D&rsquo;Souza, which was reportedly influenced by Ted Cruz, will restore his right to vote, enable him to travel outside the country, end his probation, and free him from community service commitments.</p>
<p>It will be like nothing ever happened.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> This whole thing was fishy from the start. If D&#8217;Souza had not been a visible Obama opponent, he would not have been charged in this, its a blatant partisan misuse of law enforcement. Trump has corrected a great wrong in pardoning D&#8217;Souza.</p>
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