Supporters Say Former GOP Congressman’s Conviction Latest Example of ‘Deep State’ Retaliation

August 5, 2018 in News by Ken

Image result for Texas Congressman Steve Stockman

source: www.westernjournal.com
By Randy DeSoto

Supporters of former Texas Congressman Steve Stockman are contending his recent criminal prosecution is the latest example of punishment being meted out to those who dare to run afoul of the “deep state.”

Supporters Say Former GOP Congressman’s Conviction Latest Example of ‘Deep State’ Retaliation
By Randy DeSoto
August 2, 2018 at 4:11pm

Stockman, who represented the 36th congressional district just east of Houston from 2013 to 2015, was convicted in April of misuse of funds donated to non-profits he oversaw for personal and campaign-related purposes, The Texas Tribune reported.

The 61-year-old faces up to 283 years in prison for the 23 charges, which nearly all relate back to checks he received from two donors totaling about $950,000.

Former federal prosecutor and fellow Texan Sidney Powell — who worked briefly pro-bono on Stockman’s legal team following his conviction, filing a court document calling for his release from prison pending his sentencing hearing and appeal — told The Western Journal that justice was not served in the case.

“The ‘Public Integrity’ section of the Department of Justice is wrongly named. It is notorious for political prosecutions,” she said. “It is highly likely they targeted former Congressman Stockman and have been extremely and unreasonably harsh toward him because he was so outspoken in trying to hold Lois Lerner, the Clintons, and Obama accountable.”

The attorney and author of the book “Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice” added that the DOJ clearly had “an enemies list” that included the lawmaker maker “and they acted on it.”

Federal prosecutors accused the senator of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “freebies” from oil company executives, CNN reported. However, the conviction was overturned just months later, before Stevens was sentenced, after a probe of the DOJ found evidence of gross prosecutorial misconduct, including withholding exculpatory evidence.

Powell noted the extraordinary step the DOJ is taking in imprisoning Stockman as he awaits his sentencing hearing later this month.

“That Congressman Stockman is in prison now before he is even sentenced is a further outrage calculated to impede his ability to appeal and to break him,” she said. “I’m appalled at what the Department of ‘Justice’ has become. It has completely lost the trust and respect of the people.”

By way of comparison, Louisiana Democrat Rep. William Jefferson, who famously hid $90,000 in cash in a freezer, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2009 for taking roughly $500,000 in bribes and seeking millions of dollars to broker business deals in Africa, according to the Associated Press.

Read more and watch video here: www.westernjournal.com