LINCOLN- A key figure in the indictment of U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for allegedly lying to federal investigators has resigned his position with a Washington, D.C.-based Christian group.

Toufic Baaklini, who resigned last week, had served as president and a board member for several years for In Defense of Christians, an organization that fights persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Baaklini told federal investigators that in January 2016, he was given $30,000 by Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire now living in Paris, for distribution as political contributions to Fortenberry. Baaklini said he gave the money to a California man who was hosting a fundraiser for Fortenberry at a Los Angeles restaurant. A group of people — with five of the donors having the last name Ayoub — were recruited to eventually donate the money.

Fortenberry ran into Baaklini in Washington sometime after the fundraiser, according to federal court documents, and asked him something to the effect of: “Do you think anything was wrong with the fundraiser?”

Baaklini replied by falsely saying “no” and then asked why. Fortenberry reportedly responded, “because it all came from the same family.”

Baaklini, who was born in Lebanon, had given campaign donations to more than a dozen Republican candidates for office in recent years, according to federal campaign reports.

In Defense of Christians, in a news release Sunday, thanked Baaklini for his service, adding that any campaign contributions made by, or through, Baaklini were in his "personal capacity."

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