. >> 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 w

one such case was that of conservative filmmaker, author, an old college friend dinesh desousa who was pardoned today by president trump from in a conviction stemming from a bundled campaign contribution. obama is a u.s. attorney went for broke against desousa in a case that could have easily been disposed of with a fine, and should have been. this is desousa who i spoke with exclusively. >> with regard to barrera, i see him as well as eric holder as part of this obama team of goons if you will that was unleashed to get me in retaliation for the movie i made about obama. and i think for verizon goal was, by getting a fellow indian, he would endear himself to the obama team. this would be filed under the karma is a leap department. >> laura: he was sentenced to eight months at a community confinement center, probation and community service, a $30,000 fine, and counseling. he calls it a failed attempt at reeducation. when republican members of congress who suspected political motivation push for the release of his fbi file, the department balked. when they finally turned over the file we

you are on with dinesh desousa, go ahead. caller: ptpardon is an admission of guilt. stuff, little alibis and he's giving tm ay 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 process that leads to this. 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 y

dinesh desousa. he says he may part in martha stewart.t may pardon former illinois governor rod lavoievich. >> i think the president is sending a message. basically, i will use the pardon power to pardon people even if there convicted of leaking or obstructing justice. if you are with me, i have your back. >>chris: longtime trump advisor roger stone said this, it has to be a signal to mike flynn and paul manafort and even robert mueller, insight people for crimes that don't pertain to russian collusion and that is what could happen. so, are you saying, is the president saying, he can pardon anyone he wants including people that are swept up in this investigation? >> the constitution is very clear and the power of the president as defined by the constitution allows him to pardon anybody he wants for federal crimes. no one is talking about the pardon of the heavyweight boxing champion, jack johnson which is something the obama administration had a chance to do butchose not to. people want to make this a political issue. the party pardoning

the president pardoned dinesh desousa on a one-off opportunity.ut never, ever ever has this president said to the best of my knowledge he's even thinking about my pardoned for mike flynn. >> chris: but you are saying that he could do it if he wanted to? >> corey: of course under the constitution the authority to pardon anybody is a power that lies strictly with the president of the united states. >> chris: let's turn to the allegation by you and others and of course by president trump that the fbi inserted a spy into the campaign. here's what president trump said and also what republican congressman trey gowdy said after he got a classified briefing from the justice department of the fbi. >> how do you like the fact they had people infiltrating our campaign? can you imagine? >> i am even more convinced that the fbi did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got and that it has nothing to do with donald trump. >> chris: that's trey gowdy, a conservative republican, he led the benghazi investigation

host: we will hear from dinesh desousa on his pardon from president trump.e will be right back. >> as a former educator i really believe that education is the most important factor facing south dakota. we have been dead last in teacher pay for many years. we are now 48, which is not great but it is an improvement. we must understand that children are our best and greatest assets. we have to take care of them. make sure they are good citizens . >> i think the most important issue in north dakota is diversifying our economy to deal with energy and agricultural prices. >> i feel education is one of the biggest issues we are dealing with. thatng with our students have behavior and social problems. that emotional side. --k of support, lack of whether it be bedford -- beds for kids that need, just finding we don't have the support we need to help these kids be successful. public funding right now whether for infrastructure programs or public employees such as teachers. funding is really tight in our state. >> part of c-span's 50 capital's tour. washington journal

months, including the posthumous pardon on the first black heavyweight boxing champion jac, nader dinesh desousaded guilty to campaign finance violations, and former bush administration officials good ability -- scooter libby, convicted in the leak with valerie playing. he is also considering pardoning martha stewart and former illinois governor rod blagojevich, not eligible for parole until 2024. as you might imagine, experts might say we will see an uptick of celebrities and others pushing the president to free their favorite felons. shannon. >> shannon: stay out of trouble, trace. you won't have to go back for a >> will >> shannon: thank you. a media frenzy about melania trump. today, the president lashed out, calling the coverage unfair and vicious. fox news channel media buzz host howard kurtz separates fact from fiction. >> she went through a little rough patch but she's doing great and we are very proud of what she has done. the people love you. the people of our country love you. thank you, honey. >> melania trump appeared at a fema hurricane briefing with her husband today, which would

. >> last week come president trump pardon author and filmmaker dinesh desousa, convicted four years ago for making illegal campaign contributions.

former white house general counsel discuss the latest in the robert mueller investigation and then dinesh desousa talks about his recent pardonpres fm ent trump. be sure to watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. onhere is what is live tuesday. for memberin at noon speeches and they will work on a number of interior department measures on national store trails, monuments, and heritage areas. on c-span two, the senate will continue debate on judicial nominations. c-span3, betsy devos testifies at a senate hearing about the 2019 budget request for her department. i will get started at 10:15 eastern. afternoon, a congressional panel investigates the sexual abuse of athletes. universityigan state president will be on capitol hill. watch that at 3:00 eastern.

host: dinesh desousa is an author, filmmaker and most recently in the news for receiving a parom presidt trump, joining us from houston, texas. good morning. guest: good morning.

president trump granted a full on thursday to dinesh desousa and was considering clemency for other celebrityelons, showing his willingness to exercise his unilateral pardon his friends and allies. the president was weighing commuting the sentence of former illinois governor rod the boy --ge -- problem goad of it rod bogota niche -- arguing that sousa had unfairly been treated by the justice system. trouble also delivered an indirect but unmistakable message to personal attorney michael cohen and personal security advisor michael flynn, and others since there in investigations that they too could be spared punishment in the future. back to trade and the tariffs announced yesterday, supporting those tariffs is steve in california. go ahead. caller: yeah. i am actually supporting the tariffs, because if you look at your eventsies, china, which have a value tax workers, wets their do not have anything like that over here. , when thes basically corporations move their companies abroad, we have to and they have their own protections that keeps our products from being sold. thatlso have to realize

and dinesh and desousa. i thought according your sense was harsh. if the sens were reduced, it should be consistent with what we did in the obama administration as we look at the vast number of people and the war on drugs who were arrested, convicted and who should've gone to jail and served time but didn't deserve to be in jeopardy 20 years or 30 years or life. where they committed a nonviolent, drug-related offense. sometimes to support a drug habit. drugs have had a devastating impact on our society. we look at the opioid crisis that you are all doing with of here. people who are selling those runs need to be held accountable. the punishment needs to be commensurate with the action that people engaged in. we can't have these excessively long sentences because that tends to breed distrust of the judicial system. i hope the president will look at ways with which he can make is more fair and look behind the political supporters and look at people as we did. >> i was taken by your remarks make every vote count. when it costs $69 or $109 to a percenta

fueling the speculation was president trump's high-profile conservativeeek of ,ommentator dinesh desousa pardoned as a signal to robert mueller that president trump might pardon central figures in the investigation of possible collusion. the president's lawyer appeared on multiple shows sunday. he was asked if the president could pardon himself. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> it is not going to happen. it is a hypothetical question. there is nothing that limits the power of the presidential pardon from a federal crime. --sident trump is not up to not going to do that. he is not been to give up any of his pardon powers. >> why put it in the memo if he wasn't going to do it? was this a threat? was this a threat to robert mueller? >> you are not asking the guy who wrote the memo. >> fair enough. >> i'm not sure i would have written that. i think it is a hollow promise. >>ou think it does come across as a threat? >> not a threat. almost impractical. the president of the united states pardoning himself would be unthinkable, and it would lead to probably an immediate impeachment.

. >> this past week, president trump pardon dinesh desousa, who admitted to illegal campaign contributions in 2014. it led to speculation the president could use his pardon powers for others, including himself. we hear from the president advisor, mayor rudy giuliani and kevin mccarthy. >> one argument in the memos is the president could simply end this with the power of the pardon. could he also pardon himself? >> it will not happen. it is a hypothetical point. nothing limits the presidential federal crime,m not state crime to the president will not do that and he will not give up any of his heart and powers or any other future president pardon powers. that he will not do that. in the memo if he will not do it? is it a veiled threat, if you push it too far, look what we can do, we will end your probe? the guyre not asking who wrote the memo. i am not sure i would have written that. hollow it is sort of a promise. >> do you think it comes across

. >> this past week, president trump pardon dinesh desousa, who admitted to illegal campaign contributions in 2014. it led to speculation the president could use his pardon powers for others, including himself. ea