Republican’s Conviction Overturned, DOJ Humiliated in Major Reversal

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This is just what President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice needs for the new year: A high-profile conviction of a Republican getting overturned by an appeals court.

On Dec. 26, a federal appeals court tossed out former Nebraska GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s 2022 conviction for lying to the FBI, arguing the case wasn’t tried in the proper venue.

“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,” U.S. District Judge James Donato wrote in the decision, according to The Hill.

“The Constitution does not permit this. Fortenberry’s convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue.”

The case involved a $30,200 donation from a Nigerian businessman to Fortenberry’s campaign in 2016.

“During interviews with the FBI, Fortenberry told investigators that he was unaware of any illegal contributions to his campaign,” The Hill reported. “But court filings indicate the agency had listened into an earlier phone call, in which a cooperating witness told Fortenberry that the Nigerian businessman was likely the source of the $30,200 donation.”

However, the problem with Fortenberry’s conviction wasn’t with the evidence. It was where the case took place. The FBI interviewed Fortenberry at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska, and at his lawyer’s office in Washington, D.C. — not in Los Angeles, where he was tried.

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