COSA NOSTRA A LAGO.

The D'Souza pardon makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, like Trump D'Souza is a piece of shit. He began his career at Dartmouth outing and harrassing gay students and has since made his living with rightwing columns, books, and documentaries of a low character -- for example, he was the inspirator of Newt Gingrich's ravings about Obama and anti-colonialism. All the bigtime conservatives kissed his ass at first, because he was considered one of the exciting New Breed of wingnut apparatchiks (his color, unusual for a conservative, was also thought an advantage until it became clear that he hated black people too). But over time D'Souza has become an embarrassment to the credentialed conservatariat -- not just because he committed campaign finance violations, nor just because, despite being a total toffee-nosed moral scold, he cheated on and humiliated his wife, but also and mainly because his emissions became such rank garbage -- like his screed about how Nazis and hippies were the same thing because they were all "rutting bohemians"; also because, I shit you not, "[Hitler] was also a vegetarian" (not to mention he's a shameless publicity hound whose marketing copy is rife with fakery of the sort you'd find in Angry Grandma emails) -- that it threatened, like Trump's presidency, to taint their self-image.  D'Souza didn't care; he'd just go roil the rubes at CPAC and places like that and they'd eat his swill like sugarcandy.

But mainly the pardon is meant as a sign to Trump's troops. It's meant to assure those low-end scribes who think D'Souza's a martyr that Trump believes the same hooey they do, keeping them hooting and squawking on his behalf; more importantly, it's meant as a signal that he'll protect anyone who does campaign crimes for Republicans, particularly him. Of course, he has to remain in power, and unimprisoned, for the trick to work, but isn't that the conservative idea of what America's all about -- plowing ahead with your big-money crimes, trusting that God will protect you?