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President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to 20 people, including three former Republican members of Congress and two people who were convicted of crimes as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also pardoned four military contractors convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007, and extended clemency to several people convicted of drug offenses. The pre-Christmas pardons and commutations came as the president has been exploring how to reward friends and allies in the waning days before leaving office next month, with more acts of clemency expected to come.

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...

In the February 6 celebration of his acquittal, President Trump explained that, “right at the beginning, they [his advisors] said, ‘don’t worry sir; all of the facts are on your side.’” But the president told them, “you don’t understand. That doesn’t matter.” He added, “they made up facts.” Rep. Adam Schiff who led the inquisition indeed made up the facts. He had honed his deceitful tactics as a Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor. Other political targets of DOJ corrupt prosecutions completely identify with Trump’s retort to his advisors. My husband, former Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX) certainly does. He lost count...

Former Congressman Steve Stockman is unfairly serving a 10-year prison term for supposedly misusing nonprofit funds. The popular Texas conservative was convicted due to an improper trial against him, with prosecutors presenting incorrect information to the jury and getting the judge to agree to prohibit him from producing helpful evidence. They claimed he misused funds from two nonprofits he worked with — but the money went for voter education and youth training as promised. This is not fraud but a drive-by political hit by Andrew Weismann, chief of the criminal fraud section of the DOJ and Andrew McCabe, formerly of...

Momentum is building to free conservative former Congressman Steve Stockman from prison. The outspoken conservative activist was targeted by the deep state after he stood up to the Obama administration, which included him calling for the arrest of Lois Lerner. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly misusing nonprofit funds for political purposes.His attorneys filed an appeal last month. It was followed by an amicus curiae signed by 27 prominent conservatives, all of whom are affiliated with nonprofits themselves. The signers include Richard Viguerie, L. Brent Bozell III and Jenny Beth Martin. The amici are concerned with how the law was...

Former Republican Congressman Steve Stockman is fighting back against The Swamp. He was targeted by powerful Democrats and wrongly convicted of misusing nonprofit funds. Corrupt, left-leaning prosecutors in the Department of Justice went after him because he called for the arrest of the IRS’s Lois Lerner, was the first to expose Obama’s ransom payment for Bowe Bergdahl, and aggressively rooted out corruption under both Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies. He made the Drudge Report during his most recent term in office more than any other House member. The reality is, Stockman complied with very complex, technical laws — but...

WASHINGTON – The Empire strikes back? First, the Republican Party made Donald Trump sign an oath of loyalty by pledging to support its eventual presidential nominee and not run as a third-party candidate. Now, the establishment GOP may be planning to do the very thing it made Trump promise not to do: bolt from the Republican party and run a third-party campaign. Mark McKinnon, former President George W. Bush’s chief media strategist, suggested a scenario to NPR the GOP elite might follow if it looks like Trump will win the party’s presidential nomination. “The Republican establishment completely freaks out. They...

Washington • The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference at Baku on the Caspian Sea in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members, according to a confidential ethics report obtained by The Washington Post. Three former top aides to President Barack Obama appeared as speakers at the conference. Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses...

The cromnibus had an unlikely savior Thursday afternoon in the form of a lame-duck lawmaker who used to raise reindeer. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), who lost his primary earlier this year, was originally among the conservative Republicans who voted against the rule. Without the help of Democrats, Republicans could only lose 17 of their own to pass the rule, which sets up floor debate for the underlying "cromnibus" spending bill. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) intervened once there were 18 Republican defectors — and not a single Democrat voting "yes." Many Democrats will vote against the government spending measure because they...

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice pushed back on Sunday against GOP claims that the administration negotiated with terrorists by transferring five Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to Qatar in exchange for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl on Saturday. "I wouldn't put it that way," Rice said on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked if the exchange means that U.S. officials can no longer say they don't negotiate with terrorists. "Why didn't you notify Congress?" Crowley asked, referencing the law that requires the president to alert Congress in 30 days before transferring any prisoners from Guantanamo Bay....

The White House countered Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Clear Lake, in a statement Friday after the congressman had questioned whether President Barack Obama paid ransom for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release. “The United States did not provide money in return for Sgt. Bergdahl,” National Security Staff spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. Stockman, who has previously threatened to file articles of impeachment against Obama, sent a letter to the White House on Thursday asking if the administration offered money to the Haqqani network, the terrorist organization that held Bergdahl captive. The congressman claimed the Islamist insurgent group would use such ransom money to fund...

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) transmitted a letter to President Barack Obama Thursday asking if the Obama administration authorized any payment to the Haqqani Network terrorist group in exchange for U.S. Army Spc. Bowe Bergdahl. The Haqqani Network, which held Bergdahl for five years, funds its terrorist activities in part by ransoming prisoners. The ransom for a uniformed American service member would greatly benefit the group’s terrorist activities. “The Haqqani Network generally does not release Westerners unless they receive a large payment. It would be hard to believe they would release Bergdahl in an exchange that does not...

McALLEN, Texas – Observing what he could only describe as “chaos on the border” during a midnight tour of the Rio Grande on Friday, Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, concluded, “President Obama is begging to be impeached.” “For all I know, Obama is preparing to process five million illegal immigrant kids and teenagers into the United States,” Stockman said upon observing border operations near McAllen, Texas. “He wants us to impeach him now,” Stockman theorized, “before the midterm election because his senior advisors believe that is the only chance the Democratic Party has to avoid a major electoral defeat. Evidently Obama...

Original title:GOP Congressman: ‘We Just Filed a Resolution Directing the Sergeant-at-Arms to Arrest Lois Lerner for Contempt’ Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced on Thursday that he has filed a resolution directing the House sergeant-at-arms to “arrest Lois Lerner for contempt of Congress” over the IRS targeting scandal. Stockman said in a statement that asking the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute Lerner for “admittedly illegal activity” is a “joke.” Instead, the Republican said it is up to the U.S. House to “uphold the rule of law and hold accountable those who illegally targeted American citizens for simply having different ideas...

Democrats endorse arrest powers: “I could have arrested Karl Rove on any given day” Pelosi said just days ago > CNN, New York Times also endorse the House’s power to arrest   WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Stockman Thursday filed a resolution directing the House Sergeant-At-Arms to arrest former IRS Director of the Exempt Organizations Unit Lois Lerner on charges of contempt of Congress. “Asking the Justice Department to prosecute Lois Lerner for admittedly illegal activity is a joke.  The Obama administration will not prosecute the Obama administration.  How much longer will the House allow itself to be mocked?  It is...

Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas There’s something rotten in America, and it’s called Common Core. This new approach to educating children in our country is a top-down, rotten-to-the-core set of educational standards that is being imposed on states through federal bribery. How has this been achieved? States were promised funds from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top Program, part of the $800 billion stimulus package, if they agreed to adopt Common Core educational standards. In addition, they would receive a waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act, all before these educational standards were released. Enticed by the idea...

This nation was founded on the rule of law, and the equality of treatment under such. With that in mind, Rep. Steve Stockman will offer taxpayers access to the same set of excuses used by the IRS when dealing with inquiries into the tax records — and those of other politicians in scandals of their own. The new bill, titled “The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act,” would allow taxpayers to use any of the following ten reasons as a positive defense during an audit: 1. The dog ate my tax receipts 2. Convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction 3....

WASHINGTON -- Taxpayers who do not produce documents for the Internal Revenue Service will be able to offer a variety of dubious excuses under legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) a week after the IRS offered an incredibly dubious excuse for its failure to turn documents over to House investigators. “The United States was founded on the belief government is subservient and accountable to the people. Taxpayers shouldn’t be expected to follow laws the Obama administration refuses to follow themselves,” said Stockman. “Taxpayers should be allowed to offer the same flimsy, obviously made-up excuses the Obama administration uses.”...

...[M]oments ago, representative Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced he would request that the National Security Agency help in the hunt for missing emails to and from the IRS’s Lois Lerner, and recover two years worth of "lost" emails. [....] And now the NSA is caught between a rock and a hard place: because if it refuses an official congressional demand, it shows once again that the spy agency is entirely separated from any concept of checks and balances and accountability; if it complies, it confirms that all the NSA is, considering it can't even tap into a bunch of Al Qaeda...

Updated 6:37 p.m. | Sen. Ted Cruz gathered a group of House conservatives in his office Tuesday night, talking about immigration and House GOP leadership elections slated for after the midterm elections. As CQ Roll Call first reported last October, Cruz held a secret meeting with members at Tortilla Coast during the height of the government shutdown drama. Many of these same Republicans are the agitators who aren’t happy with Speaker John A. Boehner. The Texas Republican gathered roughly 10 members of the GOP Conference at 8 p.m. Tuesday for a 90-minute session that included candy bars, crackers and soda....