“Why should you go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?” asks the character of Bob Loblaw, an attorney, in the sitcom “Arrested Development.”

That line, which was written as a joke, is being repurposed to defend President Trump’s pardon of political provocateur Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty in May 2014 to using straw donors to funnel an estimated $20,000 to a New York Senate candidate.