LINCOLN - In March, a jury swiftly and decisively convicted then-U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of two counts of lying to federal agents and one count of trying to conceal the source of $30,000 in dirty campaign funds.

The former Nebraska congressman is now seeking to have those convictions overturned. Fortenberry posits that any misstatements he made were not substantive, or material, to federal authorities' investigation.

It is not enough to lie to federal agents to be convicted under federal law; the lie must be in regard to something substantial and it must throw off an investigation.

Fortenberry's attorneys argued: So what if Fortenberry claimed to not know he was told that $30,000 in campaign contributions came from a Nigerian billionaire? It had no effect on federal agents because they already knew the billionaire had funneled the money.

“The law does not criminalize every false statement that is made to the government,” Fortenberry’s attorney, John Littrell, wrote in a recent brief. “(It) criminalizes only the falsification or concealment … of a material fact.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. scheduled a hearing on that motion for June 28, the same day he is set to sentence Fortenberry in Los Angeles.

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