LINCOLN — Attorneys battled last week over whether the jury in U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s criminal trial will be allowed to hear the entirety of interviews he gave to federal investigators.

Fortenberry, a Republican, is accused of three felony charges of lying or misleading investigators.

His lawyers want jurors to hear the full interview given at the representative's home in Lincoln. They believe it will show "the agents' interruption questioning and invitations to tangents."

Federal prosecutors proposed hearing 19 segments of a nearly 50-minute interview in March 2019. This was proposed, partially, in an effort to save time according to the pretrial motion.

Fortenberry's defense attorneys, however, argued the interview deserves to be heard in its entirety to "rebut the government's theory that Fortenberry 'dug himself a medium-sized hole' by willingly providing incomplete and inaccurate responses.

“Fortenberry tried in good faith to recall the events asked about to the best of his ability, but those efforts are not fully apparent without all his statements and the context of this entire interview,” his attorneys stated.

Prosecutors also gave notice that they want to submit clips from a later interview in July of 2019 that Fortenberry and his then-attorney, former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, gave to authorities. The proposed submission would include 27 clips from the interview, but the defense wants five more presented to jurors. Fortenberry is reportedly quoted in these clips as saying, "I'm just not recalling" and "I don't remember."

Last week, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld rejected a proposal to move the trial to Nebraska. It will instead be held in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. That trial begins on March 15.

Fortenberry is also facing a tough challenge in the GOP primary election from State Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk. Flood has been endorsed by Gov. Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman.

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