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His spokesman, Chad Kolton, on Thursday called it proof that federal prosecutors under President Biden's Department of Justice are out of control and being allowed to "weaponize the government’s vast prosecutorial power for their own personal and political reasons." 

“This case has defined overzealous prosecution from the earliest days of the investigation, and retrying it in D.C. just highlights the prosecutors’ vindictive obsession with destroying a good man’s life," Kolton said. "Federal prosecutors should have better things to do than force a distinguished former public servant to incur massive additional legal costs despite already having resigned his office and performed his sentence from a conviction that was ultimately overturned."

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia was just 10 weeks away from the statute of limitations running out to try Fortenberry for statements he made while still in office during an interview July 18, 2019, at his counsel's office in Washington.

Federal prosecutors in California initially tried him in Los Angeles in 2022 on the allegations.

A jury there found him guilty of one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents during an investigation into $30,000 Fortenberry had gotten from a controversial Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, at a fundraiser in LA in 2016.

Fortenberry ultimately donated the money to charity after he learned about it because it is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money. But the FBI says he lied in interviews about the money. 

Fortenberry resigned from the House of Representatives a week after his conviction and he was sentenced to probation, community service and a $25,000 fine.

But the sentence and convictions later were canceled out on appeal. 

In a Dec. 26 decision, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Fortenberry should have been tried in Nebraska or Washington — where the statements had been made — not in California where the fundraiser took place. 

The mandate was issued on March 19, just four days before the five-year statute of limitations ran out to bring charges against him in Nebraska over the statements he made at his home March 23, 2019.

But officials still had until July 18 to try him for the statements he made in D.C.

This week, a grand jury there indicted him on two charges: falsifying and concealing materials facts and making false statements.

Kolton called it a disgraceful misuse of prosecutorial power and an egregious waste of resources, saying the DOJ seems intent on dragging Fortenberry "around the country to face one trial after another until it can secure a conviction that actually holds up."

"This case never should have been brought in the first place, and it shouldn’t have been pursued again after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled so decisively in Fortenberry’s favor," he said.