Former congressman from Nebraska wins appeal in LA case

Former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry won his appeal Tuesday to vacate his convictions for making false statements to investigators after a federal appeals court ruled that Los Angeles was an improper venue for his trial.

Fortenberry should have been tried in the district where the alleged false statements took place — Nebraska and Washington, D.C. — not Los Angeles, according to the opinion by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena.

“Fortenberry’s trial took place in a state where no charged crime was committed, and before a jury drawn from the vicinage of the federal agencies that investigated the defendant,” according to the court. “The Constitution does not permit this.”

The trial mistakenly took place in Los Angeles last year because that is where the federal agents who investigated Fortenberry were based, and it is where the illegal contribution activity alleged in the case was said to have occurred, according to the panel.

Fortenberry was not charged with a violation of the federal election laws.

A jury in downtown Los Angeles found Fortenberry guilty in June 2022 of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements following trial. He was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and complete 320 hours of community service.

The 62-year-old Republican resigned his office following his convictions.

The appeals court reversed the convictions so that Fortenberry may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Fortenberry lied to and misled authorities during two interviews conducted by federal officials who were looking into illegal contributions to Fortenberry’s reelection campaign made by a foreign billionaire in early 2016.

Gilbert Chagoury, a foreign national prohibited by federal law from contributing to any U.S. elections, donated $30,000 through “straw donors” who attended a Fortenberry campaign fundraiser in Glendale, according to court papers.

It is illegal for foreign nationals to make contributions to a federal campaign. It also is illegal for the true source of campaign contributions to be disguised by funneling the money through third-party conduits.

Chagoury entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2019 in which he admitted providing about $180,000 that was used to make illegal contributions to four candidates in U.S. elections.

Chagoury paid a $1.8 million fine and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.

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