Congressman Fortenberry Clarifies Legal Fund, Says Nation Can't Afford Proposed Spending

Oct. 5, 2021, 3:27 p.m. ·

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (Photo by William Padmore, Nebraska Public Media News)

Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry is clarifying media reports that he is facing a possible criminal investigation, saying the issue stemmed from foreign contributions to a campaign account. Fortenberry, speaking at a Lincoln Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday, explained why he recently set up a legal expense trust.

“A number of years ago, some very bad people illegally transferred money into my campaign, along with several other members of Congress. They were caught, they were punished and they’ve been held accountable, thankfully,” Fortenberry said. “As a part of that, I had to seek legal help, I had to have a lawyer, and so we set up a legal trust to help defray some of those costs.”

Fortenberry also spoke about President Biden’s nearly $5 trillion in proposed infrastructure spending and social safety net programs and said that’s just the start.

“The regular appropriations bill is also going to be over $5 trillion and so this is an unprecedented amount of spending which includes all types of new potential tax hikes and again re-definitions of government, what government is and a concentration of power in D.C.,” Fortenberry said. “This is why you have such a big political divide.”

Biden is trying to convince moderate Democratic senators who don’t think the nation can afford that kind of spending that the country needs it to help recover from the pandemic.