{"id":1400181,"date":"2022-03-25T10:14:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T14:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1400181"},"modified":"2022-03-25T10:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T14:14:55","slug":"gop-rep-jeff-fortenberry-convicted-of-lying-to-feds-faces-up-to-15-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-rep-jeff-fortenberry-convicted-of-lying-to-feds-faces-up-to-15-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Convicted Of Lying To Feds, Faces Up To 15 Years In Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-rep-jeff-fortenberry-convicted-of-lying-to-feds-faces-up-to-15-years-in-prison%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1400181&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A federal jury found Republican Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry guilty Thursday night of lying to federal investigators and falsifying campaign documents after a week-long trial.<\/p>\n<p>Fortenberry, who entered Congress in 2005, was <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/19\/jeff-fortenberry-indicted-gilbert-chagoury\/\">charged<\/a> in October 2021 with two counts of lying to federal agents and one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts. Each charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. Federal judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. will sentence Fortenberry on June 28. <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/19\/jeff-fortenberry-announces-bizarre-video-fbi-charge-him-crime\/\"><strong>(RELATED: Jeff Fortenberry Announces In Bizarre Video That He Expects The FBI To Charge Him With A Crime)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter learning of illegal contributions to his campaign, the congressman repeatedly chose to conceal the violations of federal law to protect his job, his reputation and his close associates,\u201d U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/congressman-jeff-fortenberry-found-guilty-concealing-facts-and-lying-investigators\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cThe lies in this case threatened the integrity of the American electoral system and were designed to prevent investigators from learning the true source of campaign funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortenberry is vowing to appeal the conviction. The congressman has repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/12\/12\/fortenberry-indictment-524107\">claimed<\/a> that federal agents used deceptive interview tactics when speaking with him, and that his comments did not negatively impact an investigation into campaign straw donations. Fortenberry had been unsuccessful with a motion to have his trial conducted in Nebraska, not Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always felt like it was going to be hard to have a fair process here,\u201d he said shortly after his conviction, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/03\/24\/gop-rep-jeff-fortenberry-convicted-of-lying-to-fbi-00020372\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Politico<\/a>. \u201cSo this appeal starts immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The convictions stem from an FBI investigation into Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire with connections to Democrats and <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/03\/31\/obama-transportation-secretary-ray-lahood-undisclosed-payment-foreign-billionaire-doj\/\">Republicans<\/a> as well as alleged ties to the terror group <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2016\/08\/28\/billionaire-clinton-foundation-donor-denied-entry-into-us-because-of-terror-ties\/\">Hezbollah<\/a>. According to investigators, Chagoury used straw donors to give $30,000 to Fortenberry\u2019s 2016 re-election campaign. Foreign nationals are prohibited by law from giving money to federal candidates.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7398061\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7398061\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gilbert Chagoury (Screenshot via YouTube\/France24 English)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chagoury <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/lebanese-nigerian-billionaire-and-two-associates-resolve-federal-probe-alleged\">paid<\/a> a $1.8 million fine in 2018 to resolve charges that he gave $180,000 to four candidates through straw donors.<\/p>\n<p>Fortenberry first became aware of the illegal donations in 2018, federal investigators say, after the organizer of the fundraiser told him about Chagoury\u2019s involvement. The FBI and the organizer, Elias Ayoub, recorded the conversation in which Ayoub told Fortenberry about the illegal donations, according to Politico. However, instead of reporting the donations to the Federal Election Commission, Fortenberry denied knowledge of them in two interviews with FBI agents.<\/p>\n<p>Two of Fortenberry\u2019s colleagues, Democratic California Rep. Anna Eshoo and former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, testified for the defense during the trial. Gowdy, who worked as a defense lawyer after leaving Congress, briefly served as Fortenberry\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Gowdy <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/03\/24\/anna-eshoo-trey-gowdy-jeff-fortenberry-trial\/\">testified<\/a> that Fortenberry attempted to cooperate with federal investigators, while Eshoo described him as \u201chonest\u201d and bringing \u201cintegrity to everything he does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortenberry has said that he still plans to seek re-election in the 2022 midterms. Representatives who are convicted of a felony are not required to resign their seats, although they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everycrsreport.com\/files\/20140508_RL33229_ca084b3e8696c516be5cd1a752a81efeab954acf.pdf\">prohibited<\/a> by House rules from casting votes in committee or on the chamber floor. Fortenberry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/rep-jeff-fortenberry-resigns-from-house-appropriations-subcommittee-after-being-indicted-on-charges-of-lying-about-campaign-contribution\/2021\/10\/20\/1710f93a-31e4-11ec-9241-aad8e48f01ff_story.html\">stepped<\/a> down from the House Appropriations Committee shortly after his indictment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal jury found Republican Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry guilty Thursday night of lying to federal investigators and falsifying campaign documents after a week-long trial.Fortenberry, who entered Congress in 2005,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}