Thread by @meghanncuniff

I’m back at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles for what should be final day of prosecution testimony in U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s trial. Federal agents are final two witnesses, after jurors heard Monday from his ex-friends Toufic Baaklini and Elias Ayoub. ⚖️🧵⚖️

Regarding scheduling, after the jury left yesterday, Fortenberry’s lawyer Glen Summers told Judge Blumenfeld the defense is “trying to make really efficient decisions, even to the point of cutting witnesses” and asked if “the government can do the same.”

Summers said prosecutors have been asking witnesses to narrate what’s on screen. (This gets back into the lack of objections. There is a lot going on that would have garnered full-throttled objections in other trials I’ve covered. Most prominent are narrative answers.)

“We are at the risk of losing witnesses because we are going to run out of time,” Summers told Judge Blumenfeld. “All our witnesses with very few exceptions are from out of town.” They’ve “come a long way” to be in LA and the defense wants “to release them as soon as possible.”

This leads into the burning question: Will Fortenberry testify? His wife is for sure a witness and will be waiving martial communications privilege to testify. AUSA Mack Jenkins was asking about other witnesses yesterday, including Trey Gowdy, the former South Carolina U.S. rep.

Gowdy (@TGowdySC) hasn’t come up in this trial, but he played a prominent role in how Fortenberry’s criminal charges came to be. He was Fortenberry’s lawyer during the second interview in D.C., in which Fortenberry is accused of lying to federal agents.

Here's the @USAO_LosAngeles trial brief that details Trey Gowdy's role in Jeff Fortenberry's criminal charges. bit.ly/3IxFtfF

Fortenberry would have to waive attorney-client privilege for Gowdy to testify, and also, it seems like Gowdy testifying could end up implicating Gowdy in crimes himself (conspiracy, also lying to @FBI etc). So I’m not sure if he’d be willing to do that?

Attorney-client privilege came up yesterday during Fortenberry’s lawyer John Littrell’s cross of Toufic Baaklini, who is a pretty crucial witness in this case. Littrell tried to ask Baaklini about his lawyer telling him not to talk about investigation w/ Fortenberry.

But Judge Blumenfeld sustained the prosecutor's objection and said, “I’m going to protect the attorney-client privilege at this point” and that “this really needed to be brought my attention previously.”

Littrell then asked Baaklini if he was aware one of Fortenberry’s daughters had had surgery, and Blumenfeld sustained the objection and told the jury to disregard.

“That’s essentially testimony by the attorney,” Blumenfeld told jurors.

To end, Littrell asked Baaklini, “You knew that Congressman Fortenberry’s work protecting religious minorities was sincere, didn’t you?”
Objection sustained.
“You were trying to help him?” Littrell asked.
“Yes,” Baaklini answered.

“But in the end, you wound up hurting him, didn’t you?” Littrell asked.
Blumenfeld again sustained prosecutor’s objection, and that was the end of cross.

The next witness was Elias Ayoub the medical doctor who organized the 2016 fundraiser where the $30k was funneled to Fortenberry, then ended up setting up Fortenberry after the @FBI came knocking.

Baaklini last week detailed the $30,000 cash in a bag stuff last week, but Ayoub talked about it again Monday. He said he picked up Baaklini, who had the money in a brown bag and kept it in the backseat, and they went to Mass.

After Mass, Ayoub and Baaklini went to restaurant in Beverly Hills and valeted the car with the bag of $30,000 cash - non-U.S. citizen billionaire Gilbert Chagoury's money for Fortenberry - still inside.

“You left $30,000 in the back of your car and gave it to the valet?” AUSA Mack Jenkins asked.
“Yes,” Ayoub answered.
“Did that cause you any concern?” Jenkins asked
“I was very nervous about it,” Ayoub answered.

But the cash was still there when they got back in the car, so Ayoub took it the fundraiser for Fortenberry, which btw was in the city of Glendale, not Los Angeles, and divvied it up to the conduit donors.

“At that time, I believe I believed it was illegal, but I was too blinded by the events in the Middle East, by the persecution of the Christians in the Middle East,” Ayoub testified Monday. (They were rewarding politicians who supported their cause.)

Important: There is NO evidence Fortenberry knew about this gangster-style bag of cash and the divvying it up in a backroom at his fundraiser. Prosecutors are implying that he at least had to have been ignoring strong signs that the fundraiser was at least kinda scammy...

... particularly through Kendrick’s testimony yesterday, but both Baaklini and Ayoub have testified that Fortenberry didn’t know about this cash scheme. Ayoub said he purposely kept this from Fortenberry to protect him.

But as this was going on, the @FBI was investigating Chagoury in a probe called “Operation Titan’s Grip,” referring to his “titan’s grip on the community,” and agents were interested in Chagoury’s attempts to influence members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

According to testimony, money given to Fortenberry was part of the scheme by Ayoub to distribute Chagoury's money, including to @MittRomney, @DarrellIssa and now-former Nebraska U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, unbeknownst to the politicians.

Ayoub said he lied to federal agents when first confronted about the illegal donations in 2016, but after the interview, “I felt very ashamed of what I did,” Ayoub testified Monday, referencing his family, friends and values.

“That night, I did not sleep, and that morning, I had a very guilty conscious. I told my daughter to find me a lawyer. I want to tell in truth,” Ayoub testified on Monday. During second interview with feds, Ayoub said he was never asked about Jeff Fortenberry.

The agents asked about Mitt Romney and Darrell Issa, but Fortenberry didn’t come up until Ayoub told the agents of the fundraiser. Ayoub also alerted them to a message he’d gotten from Fortenberry in March 2018.

“Generally, do you get a lot of text messages from sitting congressmembers to chat with you, or is that unique?” AUSA Mack Jenkins asked.
“No,” Ayoub answered.
“Is it unique?” Jenkins asked.
“It is unique,” Ayoub answered.

Ayoub said he told the FBI about Fortenberry’s outreach because “I thought it was unusual.” He waited to respond until after talking to the FBI, which led to the first covertly recorded phone call between Ayoub and the congressman.

Regarding this 1st covertly recorded call between fundraiser organizer Elias Ayoub and Jeff Fortenberry, Ayoub has strong Nebraska ties: He graduated @Creighton in Omaha and lived in the Cornhusker State for nine years.

So naturally, Ayoub's conversation with Fortenberry on April 9, 2018, began with a topic any red-blooded Nebraskan with a pulse would be discussing around that time: Scott Frost. #GBR

Frost (@coach_frost) had been hired five months earlier as the @Huskers head football coach. In the recording played for the jury, Fortenberry asks how “the community” is in LA. Ayoub says “fine” then, “The community is very excited about Scott Frost. The whole state is excited.”

Ayoub referenced Lincoln before he said community is excited re: Frost. Fortenberry asked Ayoub about going to a game, and Ayoub said he’d like to.
Fortenberry indicated the Frost excitement was palpable. “Everybody is really enthusiastic. I think that will help psychologically.”

Had some internet problems that screwed up the thread, so I'm re-doing these tweets to keep the thread together.

Because, as I said, this conversation was more than just a Big Red rally cry. #GBR As AUSA Jenkins asked Ayoub about in his direct exam, Fortenberry asks in this call if there could “be an opportunity to come back and visit the community again” then said it’s an election year...

...and he has to be constantly fundraising, and maybe the event could be smaller this time.

Then came the second call in June 2018, when Ayoub, at the direction of the FBI, specially mentioned to Fortenberry the illegal campaign donation from 2016.

As jurors heard on the recording, Ayoub tells Fortenberry he’d gotten $30,000 in cash from Chagoury and divvied it up to individuals donors to give at the fundraiser, but that couldn't happen again this year. Fortenberry said no problem.

(Fortenberry's overall defense here is that he actually didn’t hear the line from Ayoub about Chagoury and the $30,000, so months later, he wasn’t lying to federal agents when he denied knowing about it, because he really didn’t know about it.)

But jurors have already heard how suspicious that 2016 fundraiser seemed to Fortenberry’s own fundraising consultant, Alexandra Kendrick. And they’re hearing Fortenberry sound at least a little desperate for money in these calls with Ayoub.

That includes a comment that could raise questions about what exactly Fortenberry spends his campaign money on. He starts by telling Ayoub one of his daughters is having surgery soon, and that he’ll soon have three daughters in college at once "so that’s kind of tough."

That’s when Ayoub says that last time, the money “came from Chagoury, because he’s so grateful for your support” and mentioned the $30,000 in cash being divvied up between donors.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to do that as much as last time,” Ayoub told Fortenberry.

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” Fortenberry says. “I was just hopeful we could have some continuation of the…generosity you all have given. I would really appreciate it. It’s just very hard to raise money.”

Fortenberry also tells Ayoub, “Please tell Gilbert hello.”

Prosecutors would have rested today, but everyone agreed to let defense get a witness in so she could fly back to Nebraska today. She's an Iraqi woman who moved to Lincoln and met Fortenberry, and testified about his support for people who are religiously persecuted.

Her testimony was short (more on it later), and prosecutors quickly got back to their last witness, an FBI agent who interviewed Fortenberry in D.C. (Jurors heard about Trey Gowdy @TGowdySC and prosecutors displayed his photo, because Gowdy was Fortenberry's lawyer for interview)

Here’s U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry leaving court today with his family. It will be time for his lawyers to present his case in chief (call witnesses) early tomorrow after cross and re-direct of the FBI agent who took the stand today as the final prosecution witness.

Here are Fortenberry’s lawyers John Littrell (front) and Glen Summers (back) leaving court. Summers’ most memorable moment today was when he near-shouted at Judge Blumenfeld that he was about to commit reversible error. (More on that later.)

Here’s the scoop on one of Fortenberry’s witnesses. 👀

https://twitter.com/bayleybischof/status/1506364283235360779

@threadreaderapp Unroll, please. Thank you! 🚀