GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry convicted of lying to federal agents about illegal campaign donations

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., was convicted Thursday of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution in 2016 from a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire.

A federal jury in Los Angeles found Fortenberry, who is in his ninth term, guilty of one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, as well as fines.

He told reporters outside the courthouse that he would appeal.

Fortenberry, a member of the Appropriations Committee, was charged in October with lying to the FBI about a $30,000 contribution to his 2016 re-election campaign from Gilbert Chagoury of Nigeria. Foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to federal candidates in U.S. elections.

Prosecutors said Chagoury used “straw donors” to make contributions equaling $30,000 to Fortenberry’s re-election campaign during a Los Angeles fundraiser in 2016.

Chagoury entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in 2019 and came clean about providing about $180,000 that was used to make illegal contributions to four candidates in U.S. elections.

Prosecutors successfully argued at Fortenberry’s seven-day trial that he lied to investigators on two occasions when he was asked in interviews what he knew about the illegal donation.

Fortenberry, 61, also failed to file an amended report with the Federal Election Commission.