It’s not every day when a sitting member of Congress faces a criminal trial, but as The Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska reported, that’s precisely what’s happening this week.
In terms of Nebraska history, it doesn’t get more high-profile than to have a congressman on trial for three felonies while he’s running a reelection campaign. Historic. Climactic. Dramatic? That’s left to be seen.
At issue, of course, is Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, who was charged in the fall with lying to the FBI about campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire. In the process, he became the third sitting federal lawmaker to be indicted in the last five years.
For those who may need a refresher, let’s circle back to our earlier coverage. The case stems from an FBI investigation into illegal campaign contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. His donations were reportedly funneled through a group of Californians from 2012 through 2016, and went to several politicians, including Fortenberry.
Members of Congress cannot, of course, accept foreign funds for their campaigns, but in this case, that’s not the principal problem: The Nebraskan and his team have said they didn’t realize the $30,200 in contributions he received at a Los Angeles fundraiser in 2016 came from a Nigerian billionaire. The congressman later donated the money to local charities.
Rather, according to federal prosecutors, Fortenberry “repeatedly lied to and misled authorities“ as part of the investigation into Chagoury’s scheme.
The Justice Department’s statement on the charges also pointed to an alleged scheme “in which Fortenberry, after learning this information, ‘knowingly and willfully falsified, concealed, and covered up by trick, scheme, and device material facts’ about the illegal campaign contributions.”
Complicating matters for the congressman, prosecutors reportedly have tapes to be used against Fortenberry as part of the legal proceedings. The Daily Beast reported that the recordings “are just a fraction of the government’s evidence against the nine-term congressman.”
The GOP lawmaker and his attorneys sought to move the trial to his home state of Nebraska. A judge rejected the effort, and the proceedings — expected to last four to five days — will be held in Los Angeles, since that’s where the fundraiser took place.
Under House rules, the criminal allegations have forced Fortenberry to step down as the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee’s agriculture panel.
Oddly enough, The Nebraskan has decided to run for re-election anyway, which is notable in its own right. Traditionally, members of Congress facing serious legal difficulties like these would focus less on campaigning and more on their legal defense. It is, after all, challenging for an incumbent politician to effectively tell voters, “Vote for me — and pay no attention to those pesky felony charges.”
But Fortenberry is apparently working from the assumption that voters in his red state won’t much care about the criminal charges he’s facing, and as we discussed in January, recent history suggests he’s probably right.
For his part, Donald Trump issued a statement of support for the accused in October, saying, “Isn’t it terrible that a Republican Congressman from Nebraska just got indicted for possibly telling some lies to investigators about campaign contributions, when half of the United States Congress lied about made up scams.”
I have a hunch that won’t be the message Fortenberry’s defense attorneys rely on in court this week.
Clarification: The Lincoln Journal Star report quoted above originally appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, and was written by the World-Herald's Todd Cooper.