When our children are young, they’re taught that in American there is equal treatment under the law. They learn all about their rights and if someone is put in jail, they did something wrong and were found guilty of doing so in a fair court of law.
Sadly, reality is often different than the platitudes our children hear in schools.
For instance, political hit jobs on people who speak out against and work to expose corruption in the government is something we’d like to believe only happens in countries like Russia.
Sadly, such things are possible here, and I can think of no better example in recent memory than the case of former Congressman Steve Stockman.
Fomer Congressman Stockman is serving a harsh 10-year sentence for supposedly committing felony-level financial violations.
But is this is just a front? A sham illusion from the real truth?
Steve Stockman was a relentless advocate against the corrupt policies of the Obama administration. Obama’s cronies wreaked their vengeance with a ludicrous conviction on top of even more ludicrous charges.
Back in 2014, Steve was the leading voice in exposing Obama's IRS commissioner, Lois Lerner's purported scheme to use the IRS as a cudgel against conservative nonprofit groups.
It’s so curious to me that around the same time he called for Lerner to be arrested, the FBI showed up and resurrected bogus campaign finance charges that a previous grand jury failed to indict Stockman on.
It’s outright damning that Lerner was copying Raymond Hulser, the same DOJ official who signed Steve’s indictment, on emails about her plans to target conservatives.
Let's be clear. Lois Lerner's ethics are highly questionable.
What followed for Steve Stockman was a five-year long investigation costing taxpayers millions of dollars and led to a ham-fisted 10-year sentence in federal prison in 2018.
What led to this sham in the first place?
The Obama case against Steve stems from a grand total of $915,000 he raised for nonprofits he worked for from a pair of donors. The donors knew what their money was being utilized for, never once complaining to Steve or any authority figures about it.
The money was intended for various educational and philanthropic projects, some of which never panned out (which, trust me, happens often in the nonprofit business).
But prosecutors claim this is proof Steve defrauded his donors, even though, again, the donors knew where the money was going and that not every project was going to necessarily come to fruition.
Add to that the fact Steve paid himself a salary, and suddenly you’ve got an airtight case for fraud apparently. The problem with this "stealing donor money to fund a luxury lifestyle" theory is that the evidence used against Steve are credit card statements from years before any of this happened, and that he paid these charges with his own funds.
Moreover, the trial (if it can be called that) that Steve received would make the courtroom scene in "National Lampoon’s Animal House" look like serious legal proceedings.
The feds were given almost total control, and Steve’s defense was severely limited in what it could offer, including just two witnesses.
The prosecution was also not above intimidating people who might provide more context to the situation, like threatening to unleash Child Services on Benjamin Wetmore, an associate of Steve’s from Texas who was used as a witness by the prosecution, if he said more than he needed to say.
This may sound like a B-Grade spy novel, but unfortunately this all happened right here in the United States.
This is the kind of thing Vladimir Putin does every other Thursday.
Steve Stockman is no criminal; he’s a patriot who was shedding light on the illegal actions of Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Obama cronies who put Steve away now toast happily while he wastes away in a prison cell. The only things he did wrong was call, rightfully, for Lois Lerner’s to be held to account, and for Holder’s impeachment.
Like the strongmen they vehemently claim to abhor, corrupt Democrats decided that, as in the tin pot dictatorships of the globe, the opposition had to be silenced.
Free Steve Stockman. Now.
Craig Shirley is a Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian. His books include, “Reagan’s Revolution, The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started it All,” “Rendezvous with Destiny, Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America,” "Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years," and “ Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan." He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, “December, 1941” and his new 2019 book, “Mary Ball Washington,” a definitive biography of George Washington’s mother. Shirley lectures frequently at the Reagan Library and the Reagan Ranch. He has been named the First Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, Ronald Reagan’s alma mater and will teach a class this fall at the University of Virginia on Reagan. He appears regularly on Newsmax TV, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. Read Craig Shirley's Reports — More Here.
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