Convicted congressman granted clemency

Dec. 22, the White House released word that President Donald Trump utilized one of his last days in office to grant full pardons to 15 individuals and commute part or all of the sentences of an additional five individuals, including former Southeast Texas Congressman Steven Stockman.

In releasing word of the presidential actions, the White House Press Secretary stated, “Mr. Stockman is 64 and has underlying pre-existing health conditions that place his health at greater risk during the COVID epidemic, and he has already contracted COVID while in prison,” supporting the convict’s release.

Stockman, the White House correspondence staffer acknowledged, was twice a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Texas’s 9th congressional district from 1995 to 1997 and Texas’s 36th congressional district from 2013 to 2015. He was convicted in 2018 of misuse of charitable funds and served more than two years of his 10-year sentence. Stockman will remain subject to a period of supervised release and an order requiring that he pay more than $1,000,000 in restitution.

“Former Representatives Bob McEwen and Bob Barr, along with James Dobson and L. Brent Bozell are among the many public figures who have called for Mr. Stockman’s release from incarceration on humanitarian and compassionate grounds,” the White House release reported.