Posted on 12/07/2021 7:56:38 AM PST by Kaslin
No major reforms have taken place at the Department of Justice or FBI even as its politicized bungling of prosecutions and investigations has made major news.
Jeff Fortenberry is not the person you’d expect to be charged with any crime, much less the crime of lying to the FBI. Painfully earnest, the Nebraska Republican congressman is a devout Roman Catholic who has a perfect pro-life voting record. He served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and has developed a reputation for activism on behalf of persecuted religious minorities in Iraq. It was that last focus that ended up getting him in the crosshairs of the Department of Justice.
Not even the FBI is accusing Fortenberry of knowingly accepting illegal contributions from a Nigerian billionaire who shared his concern about religious persecution in the Middle East, but those illegal contributions were where things started.
In 2016, a group of Lebanese Americans held a series of events in Los Angeles for Fortenberry, including a fundraiser. At one event, he was inducted into the Order of St. Gregory, which is a knighthood established by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, for his service to persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Unbeknownst to the congressman, some attendees had been given money through a conduit to give him.
In 2018, the FBI ordered an informant to briefly call Fortenberry to tell him the contributions were probably illegal. A year later, two men claiming to be FBI agents knocked on his door in Nebraska and asked to speak to him. Fortenberry and his wife Celeste invited them into the house, although, according to an email they sent supporters, they were so suspicious about the men’s changing story about the nature of their visit that they asked local police to come over as well.
Referencing the obscene signs, nasty political messages, and emailed threats of violence that Fortenberry had received, Celeste said, “I had no way of knowing if these men were who they said they were.”
Still, assured that he was helping the FBI with a legitimate investigation, Fortenberry spoke to them and didn’t think to have an attorney present. The men were in fact FBI agents, and Fortenberry told them he was unaware of the illegal contributions and that they had been publicly disclosed.
Something didn’t set right with Fortenberry, according to the email sent supporters, so the congressman called his friend Trey Gowdy, a former prosecutor and former U.S. congressman from South Carolina, for advice and legal representation. After getting assurance from the U.S. attorney on the case that Fortenberry was not a target of the investigation, Gowdy encouraged him to go back to the FBI and speak to them again.
According to new filings, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mack Jenkins told Gowdy that Congressman Fortenberry was not a target of the investigation, but merely a subject of it, and “trending toward” being just a witness in the investigation.
But when Fortenberry and Gowdy went to speak to the FBI, the questioning turned hostile. Gowdy asked Jenkins “whether the interview was, as it had begun to sound, a set-up for a ‘bullshit 1001,'” referring to the section of U.S. code that criminalizes false statements. “Jenkins assured Mr. Gowdy that it was not a setup for a ‘bullshit 1001’ charge. Again, relying on AUSA Jenkins’ assurance, Congressman Fortenberry continued with his interview,” according to recently filed documents in the case.
Nearly two full years later, following a change in presidential administrations, Jenkins charged Fortenberry with, it turned out, Section 1001 violations for allegedly lying in both of his conversations with the FBI. Fortenberry has pleaded not guilty.
“Prosecutors ordered an informant to give Rep. Fortenberry information he didn’t know then waited nearly a year to send FBI agents to surprise him at home to ask about it. Despite Rep. Fortenberry’s efforts to cooperate, when he didn’t recall details the government’s informant had been directed to describe to him nearly a year earlier prosecutors waited until the Biden Administration was in power and then brought multiple charges that had nothing to do with their campaign finance investigation,” said Fortenberry spokesman Chad Kolton. “This set up of a highly effective and well-respected member of Congress is another alarming example of a Justice Department and FBI that are out of control and destroying the lives and reputations of far too many Americans.”
Fortenberry’s legal team is fighting the indictment on multiple levels, from where the case is being tried, to whether it is overly and improperly charged. There’s also the issue that the federal prosecutor trying the case is a witness to the alleged crime, and would likely be asked to testify.
Fortenberry’s legal team has filed a motion to compel the federal government to turn over relevant information to the case, as required by law.
The indictment was levied even as the FBI and Department of Justice are facing the loss of trust of many Americans because of a string of questionable and highly political decisions. The government agencies participated eagerly in a hoax that perpetuated a lie that Donald Trump stole the 2016 election by colluding with Russia, a conspiracy theory that arose out of a secret Hillary Clinton campaign operation. That investigation ended with no findings of Russia collusion by President Trump or any other American, but in the unrelated indictments of many Americans who had helped President Trump’s campaign for president.
The FBI and DOJ were found to have lied to the secret spy court in order to gain warrants to spy on American citizens. Numerous FBI and DOJ officials leaked information to the media, lied about leaking to the media, and otherwise engaged in scandalous behavior as part of their effort to fight the Trump campaign and presidency.
The agencies exhibited the anti-Republican animus shortly after working to allow Hillary Clinton and her staff to escape accountability for mishandling classified information during her time as secretary of state.
All this was just years after the FBI and DOJ were found to have hidden vital evidence from Sen. Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, that would have helped him fight false statement charges. A special prosecutor lambasted the DOJ and FBI for how it handled its case against Stevens. Stevens lost his Senate seat as the case was being handled. He died in a plane crash two years later.
“The extent of the corruption is shocking,” Stevens’ attorney Brendan Sullivan said at the time. “It’s the worst misconduct we’ve seen in a generation by prosecutors at the Department of Justice.”
No major reforms have taken place at the Department of Justice or FBI even as its politicized bungling of prosecutions and investigations has made major news.
Just more evidence that the DOJ and FBI are no longer serving the interest of the people. They are a Government of the Government, By the Government, for the Government.
When you have a gestapo, do you have a Republic?
DOJ & FBI: a gestapo?
Yes, it’s happening here... in our time.
Gowdy encouraged him to go back to the FBI and speak to them again.Next up, the "shocked" act.
I hope millions of people are getting the point of what the government is.
I believe Fortenberry has been set up. About 10 minutes after he was “charged” with this “corruption”, a dem opponent popped right up on the airwaves.
Almost like it was orchestrated. Seems like the FBI has had LOTS of practice of late, in orchestrating corruption scandals to taint the reputation of GOP office holders and candidates.
Truly we now live in a banana republic. The government is weaponized against its opposition. They are doing exactly what they falsely accused Trump of doing.
They're angling for his House seat.
I'll have to check his district with the Obama vote-fraud meter.
CD Pubbie Demoscat 1st 56.0% 41.1% Jeff Fortenberry 2nd 45.7% 52.3% Don Bacon 3rd 75.6% 22.4% Adrian Smith
Yeah, looks like that's what they're up to.
I have been finding evidence that a lot of The Steal in states that Trump won handily in 2020 was directed towards stealing US House seats.
Yet that fat hog, Hillary, is walking free.
Unless you dialed 911 never, ever speak to any member of law enforcement without an attorney present. They are not your friends. They are not there to help you.
Period.
L
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be misconstrued against you.”
Ex-Representative Fortenberry’s Convictions Reversed by Federal Appeals Court.
Omaha World Herald ^ | 12/26/2023 | Molly Ashford
Posted on 12/26/2023, 7:13:01 PM by gopno1
A federal appeals court on Tuesday reversed former Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry’s three felony convictions, agreeing with Fortenberry’s argument that the trial should not have taken place in California.
Fortenberry was convicted by a federal jury in Los Angeles in 2022 on one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents, all felonies. The charges stemmed from Fortenberry allegedly accepting an illegal campaign donation from billionaire Nigerian businessman Gilbert Chagoury at a 2016 fundraiser and then lying about the donation during later interviews with FBI agents.
On Tuesday, a panel of three judges with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an 27-page opinion reversing Fortenberry’s convictions “without prejudice to retrial in proper venue,” meaning Fortenberry could be tried again in Nebraska or Washington, DC., where the interviews with FBI agents took place..../snip
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.