Appeals court throws out ex-Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry's conviction

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court has thrown out former Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry's conviction for lying to federal agents about campaign contributions from a foreign national on the grounds that he was wrongly tried in Los Angeles.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday ruled that Fortenberry, a nine-term Republican congressman, should not have been tried in Los Angeles as the crimes he is accused of committing allegedly occurred at his home in Nebraska and at his lawyer's office in Washington, D.C.

"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," the judges said in their ruling. "The Constitution does not permit this.

"Fortenberry's convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue."

Fortenberry, 63, was convicted in March 2022 by a Los Angeles jury on one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statement to federal investigators, and was sentenced to two years' probation, 320 hours of community service and a $25,000 fine.

After being convicted, Fortenberry resigned from his Congressional seat representing the first district of Nebraska.

The nine-term congressman was not charged with violating election laws but with lying to FBI agents investigating allegations that he received illegal donations from a foreign national they had been looking into since October 2015.

According to court documents, a cooperating witness called Fortenberry in June 2018 with a FBI agent secretly on the line and told the congressman that the unnamed foreign national had probably gifted him some $30,000 in donations at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser.

In March 2019, two federal agents from Los Angeles traveled to Fortenberry's home in Lincoln, Neb., where he said he was unaware of any foreign contributions to his campaign. Then in July 2019, Fortenberry's attorney set up a second interview with federal agents at his own Washington, D.C., office where court documents state his client again said he was unaware of any illegal contributions to his campaign.

The court documents state the charges of lying to federal agents were filed in los Angeles where the investigators were located and where the illegal contribution activity allegedly happened.

Fortenberry appealed his conviction on the grounds that his trial was improperly held in the Central District of California and jury instructional error, which the three-judge panel said it did not reach contention on.

"We are gratified by the Ninth Circuit's decision," Fortenberry told CNN in a statement, which said he and his wife, Celeste Fortenberry, "would like to thank everyone who has stood by us and supported us with their kindness and friendship."