Nebraska Representative Jeff Fortenberry allegedly misled federal investigators about a $30,000 donation to his 2016 campaign made by a Nigerian billionaire.
“I wanted you to hear from me first,” reads the title of the strange video that Nebraska representative Jeff Fortenberry recorded in his vintage F-150 and posted on Tuesday morning. While that language might normally be found in the preamble to a Dear John letter, for the nine-term Republican congressman, it was a way to address his pending indictment for allegedly lying to federal investigators about an instance over five years ago in which, he says, a “person from overseas illegally moved money to my campaign.” By the afternoon, it was official: The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced on Twitter that Fortenberry had been indicted by a grand jury on one count of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators looking into illegal contributions to his 2016 campaign.
