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Steve Stockman found guilty of 23 felonies

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:55 pm
by Bob Juch
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/04/12 ... y-charges/
Steve Stockman, a Republican former congressman from Texas, has been convicted of defrauding two conservative mega-donors and funneling their $1.25 million into personal and campaign expenses as part of what prosecutors have described as a “white collar crime spree.”

A jury in federal court in Houston ruled Thursday afternoon that Stockman is guilty of all but one of the 24 felonies he was charged with last March. After about 16 hours of deliberations over three days, the 12-person panel only declined to convict on one of four counts of wire fraud.

Stockman will appeal the verdict, his defense team said.

“Mr. Stockman is keeping his head up and we're looking forward to getting through to the next stage of this," defense attorney Sean Buckley said.

That verdict puts Stockman — a firebrand conservative who served two nonconsecutive terms in the U.S. House before losing a 2014 challenge to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas — at risk of decades in federal prison. And in the immediate future, it sends him into federal custody, where he will remain pending sentencing in August. U.S. Marshals took him into custody shortly after the verdict was read, over the objections of his lawyers. The prosecution had warned that he might be a “flight risk,” Buckley explained.

Stockman has been on trial in federal court in Houston for nearly a month on corruption charges that include mail and wire fraud, money laundering and violations of federal election law. As he heard the jury’s verdict Thursday, he sat expressionless, according to the Houston Chronicle.