U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, center, speaks to the media outside federal court in Los Angeles, Thursday.
Brian Melley / AP
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Brian Melley / AP
U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska, center, speaks to the media outside federal court in Los Angeles, Thursday.
Brian Melley / AP
LOS ANGELES – U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was convicted Thursday on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 donation to his campaign from a billionaire. abroad at a 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles.
A federal grand jury in LA deliberated for about two hours before concluding the nine-term Republican guilty of concealing information and two counts of making false statements to authorities. Fortenberry was charged after denying to the FBI that he knew he had illegally received money from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent.
Fortenberry showed no emotion when the verdict was read but his youngest daughter began to sob uncontrollably in front of the gallery as her mother tried to comfort her. After the jury left the courtroom, Fortenberry walked up to his wife and two of his five daughters, who were present, and gave them a hug.
Out of court, Fortenberry said the process was unfair and he would appeal immediately. He would not say whether he would take a break from his re-election campaign but said he would be spending time with his family.
“I get a lot of nice messages from people around the world who have prayed for us and pulled us in,” he said.
The judge handed down the sentence for June 28. Each count carries a sentence of five years in prison and a fine.
This is the first trial of a sitting congressman since Representative Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, was found guilty of bribery and other crimes in 2002.
Fortenberry, 61, did not testify but his attorneys argued at trial that he was unaware of the donation and that agents directed an informant to him during a call took 10 minutes to install him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins said there was a lot of evidence recorded in the case and the quick jury verdict vindicated the prosecution’s efforts.
“Our view is that it’s a simple story,” says Jenkins. “A politician is caught up in the cycle of money and power. And as I said, he has lost his way.”
The trial could end the political career of a congressman seen as a staunch conservative who is always aiming for an easy victory but is not a household name outside of Nebraska. Felons was eligible to run for and serve in Congress, but the vast majority chose to resign when threatened with deportation.
Fortenberry dealt a major political blow when prosecutors announced the charges, and his indictment divided Nebraska Republicans who had supported him for years. in the protected area. Many prominent Republicans have endorsed State Senator Mike Flood, a conservative state lawmaker and former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, for the congressional seat.
Prosecutors argued that Fortenberry lied about what he knew about the illegal donation during an interview at the Lincoln home in March 2019 and a follow-up meeting four months later in Washington about the donation. Donations received at a fundraiser in Los Angeles.
Defense attorneys say Fortenberry’s vulnerability is to voluntarily meet with agents and prosecutors to help them probe and have a faulty memory.
Celeste Fortenberry, the lawmaker’s wife, was the last witness in the case and testified that her husband didn’t even remember the day they met. She said he doesn’t like making fundraising calls and is often on “autopilot” when he does them.
Attorneys for both sides of the trial focused their final arguments on one such call with Dr. Elias Ayoub, who hosted a fundraiser for Fortenberry at his Los Angeles home in 2016.
Ayoub, who is working with the FBI, told Fortenberry in a secretly taped call in June 2018 that he had distributed $30,000 to friends and relatives who attended the fundraiser so they could write checks for the Fortenberry campaign.
The doctor said the money was provided by an associate of theirs and probably came from Chagoury, who lives in Paris. Chagoury admitted in 2019 transferred $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions to four campaigns and agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine.
The three men in the alleged scheme to transfer money to Fortenberry are all of Lebanese descent and have ties to the Foundation for Defense of Christians, a nonprofit that Fortenberry supports to fight persecution religion in the Middle East.
Fortenberry asked Ayoub on a phone call to organize another fundraiser with supporters of their goal.
In 2019, Fortenberry denied to FBI agents that he received any funds from a foreign national or through so-called conduit donations, where the funds were distributed to donors. straw aid.
Fortenberry, who did not know agents taped his calls with Ayoub, said it would be “appalling” if the doctor made such a claim about the source of the money.
Defense attorney John Littrell said the call recording only describes what was heard on Ayoub’s end, not what Fortenberry, who has poor reception, heard.
If Fortenberry hadn’t heard at least three key words, Littrell said, he might have missed what Ayoub was trying to tell him about where the money was coming from. It’s understandable that Fortenberry didn’t remember the call more than a year later, he said.
“This is a memory test that any of us will fail,” says Littrell.
Littrell said the $36,000 his clients raised in Los Angeles — most of it illegally — was no small sum for a congressman in an uncompetitive district with healthy breasts. He said juries should believe what most witnesses say about Fortenberry: he was a man of honesty and integrity.
“Do you think he will put his reputation on the line of $30,000 when he has $1.5 million?” Littrell said. “That’s impossible.”
Jenkins countered that Fortenberry’s clean reputation was the root of his lies.
“You build a lot of reputation, you have a lot to lose,” he said. “That’s not an excuse to lie; it’s an incentive to lie.”
Patty Pansing Brooks, a former lawmaker seeking the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat, thanked the jury and offered “thoughts and prayers” for Fortenberry and his family.
“The time has come for Nebraska to elect new leadership. I will serve with integrity and fight for all Nebraska people,” she said in a statement.
