Former US Congressman Asks Ninth Circuit to Toss His Convictions

Counsel for Jeffrey Fortenberry, the former US Congressman from Nebraska’s First District, told a panel of Ninth Circuit judges that his convictions for making false statements need to be vacated.

Fortenberry shouldn’t have been charged in the Central District of California, because that’s not where the “essential conduct” of the alleged offenses occurred, his attorney contends.

The Los Angeles-based lower court relied on the potential effects of the false statements, but the essential conduct is the making of the false statement, Fortenberry’s lawyer, Kannon K. Shanmugam, argued before a three judge panel on Tuesday in Pasadena.

The ex-congressman ...