Former Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas
A conservative activist is calling for an emergency investigation into what he describes as the "legally actionable willful misconduct" by federal prison officials who have refused to provide doctor-prescribed medications to former Rep. Steve Stockman, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 just days ago.
Richard Viguerie, who runs ConservativeHQ, which now is promoting a petition to President Trump to pardon the former Texas congressman, confirmed in a statement that Stockman, who already has a number of health conditions putting him danger from a coronavirus diagnosis, was "being deprived medicine and hospital treatment to save his life."
He explained that Stockman was taken to a hospital emergency room late Friday after his diagnosis, and a doctor there prescribed hydroxychloroquine and other medicines.
"Steve was returned to prison, which has refused to fill his prescription for hydroxychloroquine. Also, since February the prison has denied him Zinc, which has known benefits in the prevention or treatment of COVID-19," Viguerie said. "Surely, if this were the wife or close family member of Beaumont Warden F.J. Garrido, the prescription would be filled within hours to save their lives."
He explained, "The prison’s refusal to fill Steve’s prescription, which he desperately wants filled, seems like legally actionable willful misconduct. And, rogue Warden Garrido seems to know how to perform miracles. Early last week, the count of active COVID-19 infections at his Beaumont prison was 514, but by the time of the KFDM news broadcast linked above, the number had miraculously decreased to just 28."
He pleaded with concerned Americans to "call Warden Garrido at (409) 727 8172 and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal at (202) 307-3198, and ask why Steve Stockman is being deprived of potentially life-saving medicine and medical treatment."
A statement from Stockman's wife, Patti, explained her husband was given an IV with the antibiotic azithromycin in the ER, and an inhaler of Albuterol sulfate.
She confirmed the prison provided an antibiotic prescription but "refused to fill hydroxychloroquine. Apparently, the prison doctor doesn't approve of the drug. Nor has the prison filled Steve's long-standing and administered prescription for Zinc – which boosts immunities," the statement said.
"The last time they filled the prescription was in February, but not again during all the COVID outbreak nation-wide. Of course, hydroxychloroquine works hand-in-glove with Zinc in treating COVID. The ER doctor had told Steve that he may read a lot of negative commentaries about the drug, but that they see many COVID patients day-in and day-out, 'and this medication works!' Yet the prison doctor who gives no medication to the suffering inmates knows better," the statement said.
A WND message to the Bureau of Prisons generated no response to the questions posed.
Reports across the country have confirmed that federal prison officials have let out tens of thousands of inmates because of concerns they would be infected with COVID-19 behind bars.
Just in recent days, an inmate service 84 years to life for murder was released in California. The conviction came on charges Terebea Williams shot 23-year-old Kevin 'John' Ruska Jr. and shoved him into the trunk of the car, leaving him to die.
Stockman, meanwhile, has diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis and asthma, and every other inmate over 60 who has diabetes in his federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, already has been freed on home arrest.
Reports have revealed he was on a list for similar release, but his name suddenly was withdrawn at the direction of "high-level bureaucrats in the agency.
Stockman was convicted of a charity fraud – after it took four grand juries to return an indictment.
His defense counsel explained he didn't finish the objectives for which he was raising funds, and the two donors at issue has no problem with that.
Viguerie, L. Brent Bozell III, Jenny Beth Martin and dozens of other prominent conservatives have filed a request with the courts to express their concerns over the precedent that was set.
Experts have expressed the opinion that Stockman was targeted by the Obama administration for his efforts to clean up in Washington. For one thing, he wanted Lois Lerner, the IRS executive who oversaw the persecution of Christian organizations under the tax code, held accountable.
Stockman, 63, has served more than two years of a 10-year sentence.
In a commentary by John Griffing, previously published by WND, he noted Stockman's request for home confinement was "inexplicably denied."
"It smells like politics to many of Stockman's supporters – but the reason is irrelevant, since the reversal stands in open defiance of U.S. Attorney General William Barr's memorandum directing federal prisons to 'move with dispatch in using home confinement,' and to move 'vulnerable inmates out of these institutions.'"
He wrote that Stockman's guilt is anything but clear.
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