Jun 28, 2022

Fortenberry sentenced to probation for lying to federal investigators

Posted Jun 28, 2022 5:14 PM
U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and his wife, Celeste, arrive at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles during his trial in March. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and his wife, Celeste, arrive at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles during his trial in March. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry will not go to prison for lying and misleading federal investigators, a California federal judge announced Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld sentenced the 61-year-old Republican to two years’ probation, a $25,000 fine and 320 hours of community service.

Blumenfeld said he didn’t agree with prosecutors — who had suggested a six-month prison term — that spending time behind bars would provide a significant deterrent to future crimes involving politicians lying to investigators.

64 letters sought leniency

The judge said he read and took into consideration the 64 letters submitted to the court asking for leniency, letters that came from family, friends, Bishop James Conley of the Lincoln Catholic Diocese and Lt. Gov. Mike Foley. Blumenfeld also noted that three others indicted in “Operation Titan’s Grip” did not get prison time.

Fortenberry betrayed no emotion when the sentence was finally announced and declined to address the court.

The judge said the former congressman turned a “blind eye and deaf ear” when the organizer of a Los Angeles campaign fundraiser in 2016 told him in a phone call, two years later, that the $30,000 he had received didn’t come from a group of Lebanese-Americans living in L.A., but was funneled to them from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire living in Paris.

It is illegal for foreigners to donate to U.S. political campaigns, either directly or, as in this case, through conduits.

Found guilty in March

In March, after a seven-day trial, a jury found Fortenberry guilty of two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of trying to mislead investigators by failing to amend his federal campaign contribution report.

At the time, Fortenberry pledged to appeal his conviction.

A tape recording of the 2018 call with Dr. Elias Ayoub in which he told Fortenberry that the $30,000 he received in 2016 “probably” came from Chagoury, who lives in Paris and had a home in Los Angeles, was a key bit of evidence during the trial.   

Fortenberry had represented eastern Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District since 2005 and faced up to five years in prison on each of the three counts.

Prison sentence sought

Prosecutors, in pre-sentence briefs, argued for six months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, a $30,000 fine and 150 hours of community service. The federal probation office had recommend a three-month prison term, as well as a $9,500 fine. 

Lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins, an assistant U.S. attorney based in L.A., argued Tuesday that prison is the best deterrent to white-color crime. He had asked for an enhancement in the sentence because Fortenberry was an elected official, an enhancement rejected by the judge. 

Bad ‘choice after choice’

“He made choice after choice after choice to not live up to his oath (of office),” Jenkins said. He asked the judge to reconsider his proposed sentence to provide a greater deterrent to people of “great power.” 

Fortenberry’s legal team asked for a sentence of probation, saying that sending the congressman to prison would present a severe financial hardship for his family, which includes a daughter born with a heart defect and two daughters in college.

On Tuesday, lead defense lawyer John Littrell asked the judge to impose only one year of probation. He argued that the $25,000 fine was too large for Fortenberry, who was not a man of great financial means.

But Littrell agreed with the lack of prison time.

Bitterest consequence

“Sentencing is not just about the offense, it’s about the person,” Liltterll said, quoting Foley’s letter that Fortenberry was “a good and honest man.”

“His resignation (from Congress) is the bitterest consequence of this case,” Littrell added.

The judge noted that two other politicians convicted in the same California judicial district had received prison terms for impeding a federal investigation, but he said that Fortenberry’s offenses were not as serious by comparison.

 â€œI do wish you the best of luck, Mr. Fortenberry,” the judge said at the conclusion of the one-hour hearing.