As it always does, the media are speculating over who President Trump might exonerate with a pardon before he exits in January, 2021.
But while many names are getting tossed around, there’s one person who hasn’t been given enough attention in all the bedlam that’s preceding Joe Biden’s not-quite-confirmed inauguration.
I’m of course referring to former Congressman Steve Stockman.
Congressman Stockman is currently serving a ridiculous 10-year sentence in federal prison for charges cooked up by Barack Obama’s minions as a form of retribution.
Stockman and his wife Patti are petitioning President Trump for a pardon before Biden takes the oath of office in January.
Rep. Stockman deserves nothing less considering that he was unfairly targeted and given an unbelievably harsh sentence that would make a medieval manor court blush, courtesy of the personification of a federal bureaucrat, Lois Lerner. (See my prior Newsmax column on the injustice against Stockman here.)
In fact, to call it a harsh sentence would be an understatement; what Steve has gone through in prison is beyond downright sick and cruel.
For example, recently I’ve tried to mail him a book and each time it gets returned for some new reason the prison guards failed to mention, almost as if the rules are being made up on the spot.
Steve has also been given even less access to visits and phone calls because of a cell-phone he had never seen before being supposedly found in his cell.
He’s been placed in solitary with a convicted killer the guards nicknamed "Psycho," and has been forced into heavy duty warehouse work alongside prisoners who are decades younger than Steve.
All because Steve Stockman had the temerity to describe Lois Lerner’s hatred as anti-conservative.
It’s outrageous. I can barely put into words how it makes my blood boil.
A simple pardon wouldn’t be too much to ask for; after all Obama, that great arbiter of hope and peace, gave clemency to convicted terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera.
Rivera, leader of the Puerto Rican terrorist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña, is responsible for 130 attacks in the U.S.
At least six people have died because of Rivera actions.
Steve Stockman’s alleged "crimes" more than pale in comparison.
Barack Obama has a strange and perverted sense of justice.
As a congressman, Steve was a relentless voice against Obama’s tactics against conservatives through cronies like Lerner at the IRS.
When he continued to raise his voice against what was obviously an Obama hit job on conservative nonprofits, Rep. Stockman found himself in the crosshairs of another hit job.
The FBI suddenly became very interested in old campaign finance charges against Stockman and a five-year investigation into the man and his personal life ensued costing millions of taxpayer money.
They brought their case before at least four grand juries until they finally found one to indict him.
The feds claimed that Stockman defrauded hundreds of thousands from a pair of donors to nonprofits Stockman was working for at the time.
The donors knew what their money was being used for and never once complained 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).
This, coupled with the fact Stockman was paid income from the non-profit prior to re-entering Congress was apparently enough to charge Stockman with a felony.
Stockman also never received a fair trial. He was permitted only two witnesses.
At one point, the prosecution also threatened to sic child services on one of their own experts in case he said the wrong thing.
Everyone I know who has reviewed this case agrees it was wrong, and that even if Congressman Stockman were guilty, the sentence handed down was way too harsh.
Other actual criminals who have committed actual crimes have gotten off much easier.
As one example, former Congressman Duncan Hunter stole campaign funds, was convicted, and only received an 11 months federal sentence as a result.
In another instance, former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was also convicted for campaign fraud, received only a 30-month federal sentence and is actually due to be released a year early.
Former U.S. Congressman Rick Renzi has been sentenced to just 18 months for extortion and bribery. Yet for some reason, Steve Stockman got 10 long years for asking the right questions about a member of the Obama administration.
In short, if Steve Stockman is guilty of anything, it's that he embarrassed the silliness of Obama's machinations.
What a slap in the face for Lois Lerner and a Christmas present for Stockman a presidential pardon would be.
President Trump’s legacy will be defined by what he does this last month he has in the White House.
The least he can do to cement himself as a president who upholds the law and grant Steve Stockman’s request for clemency, pardoning him for crimes he simply did not commit.
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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