President Donald Trump told conservative filmmaker and commentator Dinesh D’Souza that he wants him back in the public arena, D’Souza said Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
On Thursday, Trump announced he was pardoning D’Souza, who was convicted of violating campaign finance laws in 2014 and was sentenced to jail time. D’Souza and his defenders have argued that his conviction was a case of selective prosecution in retribution for an unflattering movie D’Souza made about former President Barack Obama.
D’Souza said Trump told him he wanted him to take an active role in America’s political struggles.
PRESIDENTIAL PARDON: @DineshDSouza speaks on camera for the first time since receiving a pardon from President Trump pic.twitter.com/4VwThp1VJ9
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 1, 2018
“He said he just wanted me to be out there to be a bigger voice than ever defending the principles that I believe in,” D’Souza said on Fox News.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, D’Souza said Trump sympathized with him.
“He said I was a great voice for America, then he says: ‘You were screwed,’ his word. He said, ‘These people went after you for a mere technicality. I’m going to set that right and clear your record so that you can be an even more visible voice for the country than you are now.’”
“He knows it was politically motivated,” D’Souza said. “I don’t want to put words in his mouth because I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he said: ‘They went after you, and they shafted you.’ Why would they do this? Obviously because I made a movie critical of Obama.” – READ MORE
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