All the Damning Allegations Against Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter
Though most of Tuesday’s news-making criminal activity was confined to the 250-mile radius between the New York and Virginia courtrooms where Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort officially became felons, an indictment was unsealed nearly 3,000 miles away that could mean the end of Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter’s political career. The 41-year-old congressman and his wife Margaret were charged with wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy, the result of a Justice Department investigation that began over a year ago. According to the filing, the couple allegedly “knowingly conspired” to cover up their habit of using Hunter’s campaign funds — over $250,000 in total — to pay for retail goods, vacations, dentist bills and more.
Improper use of campaign funds may sounds like garden-variety corruption for a congressional Republican, but the details of Hunter’s case are particularly appalling. The indictment lists several instances in which he and his wife allegedly lied about donating to nonprofit organizations in order to cover up their personal financial gain. In one case, Margaret reportedly spent $200 of campaign money on shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods while claiming the money was spent on a hunting event for the Wounded Warrior Project. In another, she told her husband to make sure to buy a new pair of shorts at a golf pro shop “so that they could falsely describe the purchase later as ‘some [golf] balls for the wounded warriors.'” When Margaret allegedly spent $152 on makeup at Nordstrom’s, she told the campaign the money was used for “gift basket items for the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Diego.”
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The Hunters also allegedly used campaign funds to pay for vacations to destinations like Hawaii, Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho. When allegedly using campaign funds to finance a family vacation to Italy in November 2015, they planned on justifying their expenses by taking a tour of a U.S. naval facility while abroad. When the Navy was unable to accommodate them, the congressman reportedly instructed his chief of staff to “tell the navy to go f*** themselves.”
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The indictment alleges that the Hunters routinely overdrew their bank accounts, incurring nearly $40,000 in fees over a seven-year period. Short on cash to spend, they allegedly viewed campaign funds as their own personal piggy bank. Hunter even asked his treasurer to allow his wife to have a campaign credit card, despite her having no formal role on the operation. Despite warnings from his staff, Hunter and his wife refused to curtail their exorbitant spending, with Hunter allegedly telling his treasurer that the laws preventing his family using campaign funds for personal gain were “silly.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/duncan-hunter-indictment-714377/
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