you can watch that live here on c-span. education secretary betsy devos testifying before a senate subcommittee on the 2019 but it -- budget request for her department. you can watch the hearing tonight, also on c-span. >> on wednesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two, a memorial service marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of robert f kennedy from the arlington cemetery. family, members of congress, and former president l clinton. that memorial service at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> last week come president trump pardon author and filmmaker dinesh desousa, convicted four years ago for making illegal campaign contributions.

today, he talked about his experience and answered viewer questions on "washington journal." we will show as much as we can of this before the house gavels and at noon. ilmmaker and most recently in the news for receiving a pardon from president trump, joining us from houston, texas. good morning. guest: good morning. host: could you remind viewers of the situation that caused you to get the pardon in the first place? guest: yes. my college friend wendy long was running for the u.s. senate in new york in 2012. we've been friends for 25 years. i gave her $10,000, the campaign-finance limits. i wanted to do more for her campaign. i convinced two of my friends to donate $10,000 apiece. i reimbursed them. i exceeded the campaign-finance limit by $20,000.

host: how would someone else have been fined or punished for doing that and how did you end up going to a facility for that? case, i was aical first-time offender. the main point, my motive was not corrupt. the candidate did not even know that i did this. in cases like that were no corruption is involved in my -- mixed guided affection for a friend. those cases are handled with community service and a fine. in my case, that was not so. host: was that because of the things you had said that the obama admintr guest: i think it did. my reason is twofold. my first released

documentary film subtitled obama's america. i know the president was mad about it. a few weeks later the fbi came .anging on my door no case in american history where someone has been prosecuted. host: that is the argument that your lawyer made in this case. selective prosecution, that is your contention. guest: i now know a little more about the case. the congressional oversight committee has a copy of my fbi file. the fbi when they found out about me assigned $100,000 at

the outset to investigate this case. .hat is strange there is no reason to highlight my conservative politics. int: the judge in this case his judgment saying there was no evidence of discriminatory effect or purpose. what do you make of that reaction? guest: we are talking about a clinton appointee judge. we told him the only way to sho -- to look inside the fbi files and in the government files,

normally obtainable, the judge flatly refuse to let us see the .ile saying there is no select a prosecution but he would not let us find out if there really was. us forr. desousa is with the next half hour. (202748-8001 four republicans -- for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independent. you are on with dinesh desousa, go ahead. caller: accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. stuff, little alibis and he's giving them away by accepting this pardon. guest: first of all i think that is logically idiotic. if someone is wrongly convicted pressured oror is

bludgeoned into making a plea deal and then you are pardoned like something the part you are doing no more than clearing your record and rectifying the original injustice so the notion that just because you accepted a pardon automatically means you are guilty is reasoning for stupid people. host: you eventually pleaded guilty to this. guest: you have to realize the what the government does is they try to threaten you with all kinds of preposterous and redundant charges. we will get you for mail fraud. you put the check in the mail. thanks rod. -- bank fraud. we are going to get you for filing a false document. i didn't file any documents. but the guys who sent the money in the filed -- they say we are going to send you to prison for years and years, it will destroy your reputation and your life unless you plead to this thing in which case we will drop the rest of it. this kind of bludgeoning tactic

pressures the innocent into pleading guilty. caller: i wanted to ask a eson. are you an immigrant? guest: i came to america at the age of 17. caller: that's interesting. thed a question about intersection of propaganda and information especially when it comes to media. the citizen united thing came from a movie right? kind of what you went through came from a movie. interesting what you thought right-wing, whatever you want to call it, taking up something the left uses a lot, media. i will sit and listen. guest: i think there's a greater realization not just of the importance of popular culture, but the real emotional power of throughto reach people

their heads and hearts. for years i was a writer and speaker. i don't think the obama administration would have regarded me as important enough to go after. in 2012 i released a movie in 2000 theaters, the second-highest grossing political documentary ever made. that movie upset obama. people will say what makes you think he cares about your movie. the reason i think that is because shortly after the movie came out attacks on it began to appear on a website called barack obama.com. that's how i know the narcissist was upset about my movie. host: what kinds of things did you say about him particularly? -- do you think that caused what he think the white house reacted because of tt? guest: here's a sample from that movie. obama had been traipsing around the country chanting the phrase we are our brother's keeper.

his argument for economic redistribution an obamacare. i went to kenya and i found obama's actual brother living in a sort of third world slum in the muck of nairobi. i asked him, what has obama done for you and the guy says nothing. this guy has not lifted a finger to help me. this kind of thing in a movie when i'm talking to obama's actual brother transcends the debate about obamacare. showing the president of the united states to be a hypocrite and i think obama did not like that. he's a patty guy and he apos to go after me. caller: good morning. i want to ask a question that i want to make a comment. ofe you not found guilty campaign-finance violations?

guest: i was. caller: ok. you think the mayor can people are stupid and idiotic. as a black woman you are -- i am offended that you would go after the first black president to demean and malign him and what you said about michelle obama, as a black woman, you are right. we are very upset. talking about narcissism, what about this narcissistic person in the white house now? that's not narcissism? the only reason you're on c-span . offended that you have this person when we have --ican-americans philadelphia eagles. why don't you have some of the eagles on this morning? think as a black personk

u would realize just because someone has been convicted of a crime does not necessarily mean they are guilty or that they've received equitable and fair treatment. is criminal justice system far from equitable not just in a racial sense but in a political sense. to give an example, rosie o'donnell,he comedian, admitted she had violated campaign-finance law five times in five separate jurisdictions. in theory, five u.s. attorneys could file charges against her today but there is no talk of her being charged because there is no corruption involved in her case. rosie goes if i gave too much money give me the money back and i would have liked to have gotten that treatment. host: from florida, independent line. caller: i'm glad to speak to youcaller:. .e re-watched your movie previously mentioned in one of the other calls.

we watched it from beginning to end and i want to thank you for making that movie. my question to you is going to be when you spoke to his brother and when you went to the grave ,ite of the former president off camera you impart any information on how their society, their culture also felt about him. when eric holder put you in a cell how did you feel about that day? kenya aten i was in the obama family homestead i got a window into obama. we think of obama, the first african-american president, civil rights guy. we might think of him in connection to the civil rights movement. obama's ideology is anticolonial. obama wrote a book, dreams from my father.

part of what i wanted to do was learn about his father and his father was this african socialist who hated the west, hated america and wanted to have global redistribution of wealth away from the industrialized countries and to third world countries. thesis that this is obama, was president trying to achieve. , i was locked up overnight for eight months in a confinement center

up -- host: from our republican line, karen. caller: i'm very happy that president trump pardoned you. . i wish you would do something t ange merkel. angelanot vladimir putin

merkel made the statements. out for a nobel .eace prize she never even got i don't know if germany is ever going to come back from what she has done. host: ks karen. thank you. guest: i will say that europe is theng a serious problem best ans take them at game against that seem largely digest -- largely indigestible. german?rkey become a can a pakistani becoming lisman? -- become an englishman? america has been a better solvent for assimilation than europe. we have done better with immigrants here than over

there. people tend tottack president trump for being a racist and this is based on the fact that trump is supposedly against immigrants. trump has always drawn the line and illegallegal immigrants. it's important to realize most legal immigrants who cto america are nonwhite. and come from asia, africa president trump has never said he wants merely white immigrants from iceland or new zealand and fewer immigrants from barbados or bombay. he just does not want illegal immigrants to break the law and come here in the wrong way. joe, goodington, d.c. morning. caller: good morning. , hented to ask mr. desousa is a film writer and all. supporting your base, that is ok.

you are equipped to attack obama. now you are being supporteby president and administration. it wor like that. night when you sit down to you look at yourself and think you are not so secure after all. none of us are. i think that sometimes we get so partial that we can do more damage than good. you may do some things that tablesxpose and turn the . at the end of the day, see who you are. youare still mr. dinesh and may be in that culture and that environment that supports you and makes you feel good and successful. that's all well and good. host: thank you, joe. guest: i would like to try to say were my politics comes from.