Indictment accuses Nebraska congressman of lying to FBI

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire.

The U.S. attorney’s office announced that the grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted the nine-term Republican on one charge of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Fortenberry is expected to appear for an arraignment Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles.

Source

Kind of surprised this flew under ATS' radar yesterday. A politician taking illegal contributions and then lying about it to federal investigators? That sounds like the kind of government corruption ATS used to thrive on.

Obviously Fortenberry is denying all allegations. However, the Feds generally won't move to indict a sitting Congressperson unless they have an airtight case. As the Nebraska Secretary of State's office said, this is the first time a Nebraskan Congressman or Senator has been indicted since at least 1901.

It looks like each count of lying to a federal investigator is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Something tells me that Fortenberry won't be looking at 10 years though.

More immediate however is that Fortenberry is be removed from the House Appropriations Committee while he is charged with these crimes. This is per GOP Conference Rules.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

As the Nebraska Secretary of State's office said, this is the first time a Nebraskan Congressman or Senator has been indicted since at least 1901.

First Nebraskan congressman to fall for a Nigerian scam.

a reply to: Xcalibur254
The word you are looking for is Republican. Forget about ALL THE DEMOCRATS with their hands in the till. Just go after Republicans.

Please ... after all the politicians and high ranking officials who have been proven to have lied for the express intent of playing dirty campaign tricks during a presidential election such that it spawned a special prosecutor and undermined an entire administration and you cheered it on and said "nothing to see here" in the face of mounting evidence that this same FBI was part and parcel to it all ... and now ... NOW? ... you think I give a damn about your cares on this?!

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Kind of surprised this flew under ATS' radar yesterday.

There is a lot of relevant news passing under the ATS radar these days.

So this means the FBI is lying

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Government corruption is nothing new, particularly recently.

Here is the difference. Republicans feel if this guy is found guilty of his crimes, he should be put away. The same can't be said for the democrats when it is one of their own. The other issue is that even when there is overwhelming evidence of crimes for democratic politicians, they are not prosecuted or even investigated.

The same can be said for "rioters". BLM and antifa rioters burned down cities and attacked Federal builings for months, the ones that were caught were simply let go without prosecution. But the Jan 6th protest, it was an all out effort to identify and prosecute even non-violent protestors who simply entered the Capital building.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I'm glad the FBI nabbed a lying politician! Personally, I think all honest politicians can now breathe a sigh of relief that the lying politician has been caught by our brave and non-partisan FBI who would NEVER turn a blind eye to any lying politician!

My concern though, is he vaccinated? If he's vaccinated that should be taken into account and maybe let off with a warning.

God Bless America!

*teary eyed now*

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I'm shocked that the Nigerian billionaires exist, I thought those nice guys sending me emails were just trying to scam me, turns out I could have actually made some money off of them.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Small stuff. Lying to the FBI is so common.

Mean while corrupt FBI does nothing with all the mountain of evidence against Hillary, Biden and his son.

All the money donated to Clinton Foundation and no real honest investigation into it by the FBI. Biden son laptop showing evidence of bribery and other illegal activity and FBI does NOTHING with it.

Sounds like an elaborate setup and I bet the "Nigerian Billionaire" is fake and may never have been "Mentioned" during the Campaign "Financing" sales pitches🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I bet the "Funneler" was an American "Agent" that place illegal cash into the Congressman's accounts 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Sounds to me like the demonrats want to force something through the house appropriations committee and he is a roadblock... I wouldn't doubt that once they get it through committee that all charges are dropped.

Jaden