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GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Claims His Age Made Him Confused in FBI Interview

The GOP representative was accused of lying to the FBI twice when he was questioned about an illegal campaign contribution.

Rep. Jerry Fortenberry (R-NE) seems to have found a scapegoat in his federal case: his own age. Fortenberry, 60, said in court filings that he plans to call in an expert on the fallibility of memory and aging to show that he was simply confused and not lying when the FBI questioned him over a campaign contribution. He also asked the court to present the full transcript of his statement to the FBI, arguing the agents were being overly repetitive in their questions. Prosecutors bristled at the congressman’s allegations in their own filings, arguing a memory expert would not provide anything more than general statements on memory. Fortenberry was accused of accepting an illegal $30,000 “conduit” campaign contribution in 2016 and then lying about it to the FBI—twice—in 2019.