Over the last five years, only two sitting members of Congress faced federal criminal charges: In August 2018, Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York was arrested for alleged insider trading, and soon after, Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was accused by federal prosecutors of having stolen more than a quarter million dollars from his campaign coffers.
Both initially claimed they were victims of political persecution; both later resigned in disgrace; both were sentenced to prison; and both received pardons from Donald Trump.
Yesterday, the list grew a little longer when Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was charged with lying to the FBI about contributions to his 2016 re-election campaign from a foreign billionaire. NBC News reported late yesterday:
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Fortenberry, 60, on one count of “scheming to falsify and conceal material facts” and two counts of lying to federal investigators, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement Tuesday. Each charge carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
As we discussed yesterday, the GOP congressman realized the charges were inevitable and tried to get ahead of them, releasing a YouTube video insisting he had not lied to the FBI.
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.”
The Nebraskan will reportedly appear for an arraignment today in a federal court in Los Angeles.








