A judge sentenced former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who represented East Texas for two non-consecutive terms, to ten years in prison for a campaign fraud scheme.
Stockman, 61, of Clear Lake, sat in silence as U.S. Judge Lee H. Rosenthal sentenced him Wednesday to ten years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme where he spied on a Republican challenger and stole $1.25 million in campaign money from big-time conservative donors.
The judge also ordered Stockman to pay the government $1,014,718.51, and undergo three years of supervised release upon his release from prison, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
“You stole money and used it for personal gain, and you used it to violate the public trust,” Rosenthal told Stockman before his sentencing. “You cheated the American taxpayer.”
A jury convicted Stockman in April on 23 felony counts for unlawfully using charitable donations.
The former Texas congressman faced up to more than 20 years in prison for each of the seven counts of mail and wire fraud against him, and ten years for each of the 11 money laundering charges against him.
He also faced an additional ten years for two counts of making false statements, another five years for one count of making coordinated campaign contributions, and up to three years for filing a false tax return.
Stockman’s attorney, Marlo Cadeddu, requested a 13-month sentence, arguing that it was the average penalty handed out for a corruption case.
Stockman was elected to the House two times, once in 1995 for a two-year term in Texas’ 9th Congressional District and again in 2010 for a two-year term in the redrawn 36th Congressional District of Texas. He left after his second term to unsuccessfully challenge Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in 2014.