LOS ANGELES (NEBRASKA EXAMINER) — A defense lawyer for U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry tore into allegations Thursday that the congressman knowingly lied to federal investigators, saying it was quite possible he didn’t hear what was said in a pivotal 2018 cell phone call, didn’t understand what was said or was distracted.
During his opening statements, defense attorney Glen Summers told jurors that the congressman often handled calls about fund-raising “on auto pilot” and that failing to hear even a couple of words in the phone call could have changed the entire context.
“He didn’t lie to the agents ever,” Summers said. “He did precisely the opposite.”
‘Straw man’ donation
Prosecutor Jamari Buxton said, however, that Fortenberry clearly understood what the host of a 2016 political fundraiser in Los Angeles told Fortenberry during a June 4, 2018, phone call — that the $30,000 he had received at that event “probably” originated from a Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire living in Paris, Gilbert Chagoury, making it an illegal “conduit” or “straw man” contribution.
“This is a case about choices,” Buxton told jurors. “A series of choices that led the defendant down a path of lies, concealment and deception.”
Fortenberry, who has represented Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District since 2005, is facing three federal felony charges: that he lied to federal investigators during two interviews in 2019 and that in 2018, he failed to amend his federal campaign spending report to reflect that the $30,000 didn’t come from a group of Lebanese-Americans from L.A., but from Chagoury.
What was said, and what was understood and what wasn’t, in that June 2018 cell phone call from the host of the L.A. fundraiser, Dr. Elias Ayoub, emerged as a key issue in Fortenberry’s trial in a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.
‘Very vague statement’
Summers told jurors that the charges were based on “one very vague statement” from Ayoub during that cell phone call, who was by then cooperating with the FBI.
The attorney said that FBI agents, who were recording the June 2018 call, never checked the reliability of cell phone service to Fortenberry’s Lincoln home and that the congressman often handled fundraising calls “on autopilot.”
“They assume that (Fortenberry) heard it, that it registered, and that he remembered it about a year later,” Summers said.
He also said that the FBI’s investigation into illegal foreign contributions, begun in Los Angeles in 2016, had become “a big nothing burger” by the time of the June 2018 call.
Summers accused lead FBI agent Todd Carter of using the call to “feed” Fortenberry information that the donations were illegal and then planning to indict the congressman if he didn’t respond truthfully when FBI agents contacted him in March 2019.
‘The big takedown’
“He saw this finally as an opportunity for the big takedown,” the defense attorney said.
In 2019, it was revealed that Chagoury had agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine in connection with $180,000 in illegal political contributions to a handful of U.S. politicians, including Fortenberry, former U.S. Rep. Lee Terry and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. Two other associates of Chagoury, including Ayoub, also reached plea deals with the feds in the case.
But none of the other recipients of Chagoury’s gifts was indicted. Terry said he gave away the Chagoury donations to charities after learning they were illegal. But Fortenberry didn’t “disgorge” his gifts until late 2019, after two interviews with FBI agents and after asking for a second L.A. fundraiser in 2018.
‘No problem’
Buxton, one of the lead prosecutors, said that Fortenberry “knew and understood” the 2016 donations were illegal and that he had dismissed the suggestion that they were illegal by saying, “no problem.”
Buxton said that instead of disgorging the 2016 gifts after the cell phone call in 2018, Fortenberry instead sought a second fundraiser in Los Angeles to benefit from the “fine generosity” of the Lebanese-Americans there.
Fortenberry became friends with Chagoury and Toufic Baaklini, the leader of the Washington, D.C., group funded by Chagoury, because of their shared interest in “the cause,” Buxton said. The cause, he said, was protection of Christian minorities in the Middle East. Fortenberry spoke at more than one event organized by the Washington group, In Defense of Christians.
There is a concern about such foreign donations, Buxton told jurors, because it indicates an attempt by foreigners to influence American politics and might be a bribe for an official to take certain actions. Prosecutors have pointed out that a congressional resolution “favored” by In Defense of Christians was passed during the FBI investigation.
Donations raise other concerns
FBI agent Carter, the first person to testify in the trial, said that when he learns someone is lying to him about such political contributions, it does raise concerns that other crimes have been committed, such as bribery or conspiracy.
Carter also acknowledged that he uses “stealth and deception” to investigate crimes, such as not being truthful about why they’re interviewing someone.
A key part of Fortenberry’s defense will be to tear down the credibility of the FBI investigators, while prosecutors must show that the congressman “knowingly and willfully” lied.
Summers, in his opening statement, said that FBI agents “ambushed” Fortenberry during their initial interview with him in March 2019, arriving unannounced at the congressman’s Lincoln home. They also told him they were doing a “background investigation” that had a “national security component,” which he called “a ruse.”
The defense attorney pointed to the document that Carter sought to gain permission to interview Fortenberry, which stated “case agents will also seek to indict Fortenberry,” to bolster the claim that the congressman was “set up.”
“Their intention was not to get information … no, it was to indict Congressman Fortenberry,” he said.
Summers, in his opening statement, introduced the jury to Fortenberry’s family members, who was sitting in the front two rows of the gallery. Prosecutors objected to Summers showing pictures of his family and the family dog during the defense’s opening statement.
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