Jeff Fortenberry announces resignation amid conviction

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry announced he was resigning from Congress on Saturday, two days after he was convicted on charges he lied to the FBI about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign billionaire.

The Nebraska Republican made the announcement in a letter to his House colleagues, saying he’d step down effective March 31.

“It has been my honor to serve with you in the United States House of Representatives,” Fortenberry said. “Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve.”

The letter had opened with a poem called “Do It Anyway” that includes the line “What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway.”

A California jury on Thursday found Fortenberry guilty of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements.

The statements were made to federal agents, who questioned him about a $30,000 donation from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury made during the 2016 election cycle.

Fortenberry had said he didn’t know about the donation in two interviews in 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska and Washington DC. A man who hosted a fundraiser for the congressman in 2016 had told Fortenberry in a phone call that he dispersed the illegal donation through straw men who could then write checks to his re-election campaign.

Chagoury was of Lebanese descent and had ties to nonprofit In Defense of Christians, a group devoted to fighting religious persecution in the Middle East that Fortenberry had supporters.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy both called for Fortenberry to resign in the wake of the conviction, which Fortenberry said he plans to appeal.

McCarthy said Friday he was going to speak with Fortenberry.

“I think he had his day in court and I think if he wants to appeal, he can go do that as a private citizen.”

Pelosi said in a statement that the conviction represented “a breach of the public trust and confidence in his ability to serve.”

“No one is above the law,” she said.

Fortenberry, who has been in Congress since 2005, had been facing reelection this year.

His sentencing is scheduled for June 28.

With Post wires