The wife of U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry provided several explanations Thursday about why her husband may not have heard or understood warnings in a June 2018 cell phone call, warnings repeated at least three times, that his re-election campaign had received illegal contributions during a fundraiser two years earlier.
Celeste Fortenberry testified that she and her husband were exhausted on June 4, 2018 after a long flight home from Finland. She said the couple was stressed out, because one of their daughters was facing a serious surgery in a couple of days.
Paul Hammel reports in the Nebraska Examiner that Fortenberry’s wife of 26 years also said the congressman “loathed” making fund-raising calls, so he often did other chores , like cooking, cleaning, yard work or walking the dog, to “help him through it” while he was making such calls “on autopilot.”
She said she heard background noises during the June 2018 call that with “a high degree of probability” were the scraping sounds of a teapot and a skillet as her husband prepared breakfast during the call.
Fortenberry told the judge he did not intend to testify. Closing arguments began Thursday afternoon.
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(Photo: Paul Hammel)