LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Former Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry’s spokesperson said they’re anticipating a new indictment on the same charges of making false statements to the FBI to drop Thursday.

Fortenberry’s original conviction came down in the Central District of California, in Los Angeles in 2022, with an appellate court finding in December 2023 the case should not have been tried in California.

Now, according to Chad Kolton, a spokesperson for Fortenberry, the Department of Justice is trying again, this time in Washington D.C.

“The Biden/Garland Justice Department seems intent on dragging Jeff Fortenberry around the country to face one trial after another until it can secure a conviction that actually holds up,” Kolton said in a statement. “This case never should have been brought in the first place, and it shouldn’t have been pursued again after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled so decisively in Fortenberry’s favor.”

Fortenberry was accused of lying to federal agents about an illegal $30,000 campaign contribution made by a foreign billionaire at a 2015 fundraiser in Los Angeles. The Appeals Court wrote that having the trial in L.A. was improper because Fortenberry was accused of making false statements during interviews at his home in Nebraska and in a lawyer’s office in Washington.

“Fortenberry’s convictions are reversed so that he may be retried, if at all, in a proper venue,” the decision said.

Kolton maintains Fortenberry’s innocence. He said the FBI knew Fortenberry didn’t know about illegal contributions and coordinated an informant to make comments about improper donations investigators would later ask about.

“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.”

Fortenberry resigned shortly after he was convicted in 2022.