Former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry to face new indictment, spokesman says
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Former Nebraska Rep. Jeff Fortenberry is set to face a new indictment on lying to federal authorities.
Fortenberry’s spokesman, Chad Kolton, said the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia will retry the case in Washington D.C.
In March 2022, Fortenberry was convicted of lying to the FBI about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign. He resigned two days later.
But an appellate court last year reversed the federal conviction, ruling that the trial shouldn’t have taken place in Los Angeles.
A new indictment on the same charges is expected sometime Thursday, Kolton said.
Kolton’s full statement regarding the indictment:
“The Biden/Garland Justice Department seems intent on dragging Jeff Fortenberry around the country to face one trial after another until it can secure a conviction that actually holds up. This case never should have been brought in the first place, and it shouldn’t have been pursued again after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled so decisively in Fortenberry’s favor.
“This case has defined overzealous prosecution from the earliest days of the investigation, and retrying it in D.C. just highlights the prosecutors’ vindictive obsession with destroying a good man’s life. Federal prosecutors should have better things to do than force a distinguished former public servant to incur massive additional legal costs despite already having resigned his office and performed his sentence from a conviction that was ultimately overturned.
“The man the Biden Justice Department is about to spend massive amounts of time and money prosecuting for a second time was described by the District Court judge in his previous trial as ‘by all accounts…a man of exceptional character. And when I say ‘by all accounts,’ I don’t mean simply based upon one-sided submissions on the part of the defense. I mean by all accounts, including the evidence that was presented by the Government at trial.’ This is a disgraceful misuse of prosecutorial power, and an egregious waste of resources at the time when the Justice Department is letting actual crime run rampant.
“This case is the ultimate proof that federal prosecutors under the Biden DOJ are out of control, and that they are being allowed to weaponize the government’s vast prosecutorial power for their own personal and political reasons without proper oversight from the Attorney General.”
