Former Congressman Steve Stockman, whom leftwing Salon called a “Tea Party darling,” has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal from a 10-year criminal sentence on multiple counts involving raising money from just two GOP donors.

You may have heard the term “criminalization of politics.” Steve Stockman’s 2018 conviction is very literally an example. Stockman’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn that politicized conviction should be watched by conservatives who know that a Biden/Harris administration would be a reboot of the lawless and lawbreaking Obama Deep State, but probably even more vindictive towards conservatives.

Representative Steve Stockman 2014 Offical Congrssional Portrait

Former prosecutor Rachel Alexander, writing at Townhall.com, said of Stockman:

He was a Congressional whistleblower on Obama administration corruption, with such actions as calling for the House Select Committee to investigate the government’s handling of the Benghazi…  exposing President Obama’s payment to the Haqqani terrorist network in exchange for the release of Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, and revealing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s violation of the Iran sanctions to allow the sale to Iran of specialized steel used in nuclear weaponry.

Stockman was visited by the FBI within a few days after calling for the arrest of the notorious anti-Tea Party IRS official, Lois Lerner, who was abusing nonprofit tax law to silence conservatives, and acting in contempt of Congress. Those very nonprofit tax issues abused by Lerner would later be corrupted as a way to prosecute Stockman. The judge in Stockman’s trial even refused to let Stockman’s defense mention the name “Lois Lerner.”

The Department of Justice empaneled three grand juries to indict Steve, including one out of the Baltimore office run by Spygate figure Rod Rosenstein, but all three failed to indict. A fourth grand jury, after the government took ample “batting practice,” finally did indict.

General Michael Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell was quoted in The New American:

“It is highly likely [the Justice Department Public Integrity Section] 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.”

Steve was convicted under what even many specialty lawyers may consider complex campaign finance and nonprofit tax law, but a friend-of-the-court brief I filed in support of Steve’s petition to the Supreme Court hopefully makes those issues clearer. Thirty-seven co-amici, including conservatives associated with nonprofit organizations, campaign finance lawyers, and former Members of Congress, added their names to the brief.

Steve’s case is literally the criminalization of politics. The court of appeals opinion upholding Stockman’s conviction failed to even once mention the First Amendment in this case about political advocacy, despite ample precedent that he was engaging in protected rights. It made new law by twisting and distorting the meaning of one Supreme Court opinion to find that Stockman had unlawfully coordinated an expenditure under federal election law.

The appeals court failed to correct the trial judge for issuing misleading jury instructions that omitted mention of the lawful and constitutionally protected “politics” in which nonprofit organizations may and do engage every day. It was almost as if Lois Lerner herself were directing the prosecution in Stockman’s case.

Like a political prisoner in a banana republic country, Steve has been mistreated in prison. Despite his age and multiple comorbidities, he was denied transfer to home confinement before and after a massive COVID-19 outbreak in the federal prison where he sits. The orders, he was told, came from someone “very high up.”

Inevitably, Stockman was infected. After an emergency room doctor prescribed him hydroxychloroquine, the prison refused to fill the prescription. As Thomas Lifson wrote, “Someone is trying to kill conservative crusader Steve Stockman.”

Steve’s tireless wife Patti has led the charge to raise the profile of his mistreatment, and the mistreatment of other prisoners who are being denied hydroxychloroquine and other medical treatment while they are sitting ducks in prison.

Patti Stockman asks that we keep up the pressure on the Bureau of Prisons, and contact officials to alert them we ask for their help, particularly:

Mr. David Brewer, Director

Acting Senior Deputy Director of BOP

Central Office

320 First Street, NW

Washington, DC  20534

202-353-3638

Patti says, be sure to cite Stephen Stockman #23502479.

Meanwhile, Steve’s petition asking the Supreme Court to hear his appeal is something conservatives should watch. Other amicus briefs supporting his request for appeal are due by September 2.

If you wish to read about just some of the injustice that was done through his prosecution, I hope you’ll read this brief. If you’re a conservative activist or candidate, you could be next under a Biden/Harris Deep Sate.