Government

NB Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Fails To Persuade Jury That He Just 'Forgot' About All Those Illegal Campaign Contributions

Hillary Clinton adds another body to the count. Allegedly. Or, like, not that at all.

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(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Jeff Fortenberry tried it.

The Nebraska congressman threw a whole lot of spaghetti against the wall after he got caught lying to prosecutors about $30,000 of illegal, foreign contributions funneled to his campaign in 2016 by a Nigerian billionaire. Even before the indictment came down, he put out this video of himself with the missus and the dog, parked in a cornfield inside their “1963 Ford F100 pickup truck.”

Would a patriot like Rep. Fortenberry, a good, Christian man from Real America, lie to the FBI? Unpossible!

“The agents said they needed his help. Jeff assumed he was one federal official helping other federal officials in the cause of justice,” his wife Celeste wrote to supporters last October. “His instinct, as yours would be, was to help. So, he talked to them.”

(These would not be our instincts, because we are not a bloody idiot.)

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Once the indictment dropped, Fortenberry’s lawyers filed an absolute blizzard of motions. Here’s a partial list of their demands:

  • a change of venue from California to Nebraska;
  • that the prosecutor recuse himself;
  • discovery into the social media posts and political leanings of the Justice Department lawyers on the case;
  • discovery into the DOJ’s charging decisions;
  • suppression of the recording where a witness told Fortenberry that the contributions were illegal;
  • suppression of statements by his campaign consultant before the fundraiser that she worried it might net them illegal contributions;
  • suppression of Fortenberry’s own statements after the fundraiser noting that he’d just received several checks from members of the same family, a hallmark of a strawman donation;
  • to introduce a “memory expert” who would testify that Fortenberry wasn’t lying, he just forgot about the illegal donations because the prosecutors were so mean and asked him so many questions that it scrambled his hard drive and he said stuff that wasn’t true.

In the main, US District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr declined to give the defendant what he asked for. And as it shook out, neither did the jury.

Yesterday Fortenberry was convicted on all three counts of making false statements to the FBI. The jury didn’t buy his theories of entrapment or promissory estoppel (LOLwut?) and returned a verdict in less than two hours.

Sentencing is set for June 28, and Fortenberry was released on his own recognizance.

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Republicans immediately demanded that Fortenberry vacate his House seat. Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts put out a statement calling on him to “do the right thing and resign so his constituents have that certainty while he focuses on his family and other affairs,” while Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, always the picture of bravery, observed that “when someone is convicted, it’s time to resign.”

Fortenberry maintained that he was just another victim of the Clinton takedown machine, targeted for his staunch political beliefs. But Lordy, there were tapes, and now he’s getting shivved by the GOP.

Ah, well, you tried.

Federal Jury Convicts US Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of 3 Felonies for Lying About Campaign Donations [Law.com]
US v. Fortenberry [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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