Normally, two Republican members of Congress being charged with crimes within two weeks of each other would be big news. Tuesday was not a normal news day. Rep. Duncan Hunter was indicted Tuesday for filing false Federal Elections Commission reports to cover up massive use of campaign funds for personal expenditures. Hunter was one of Donald Trump’s first two congressional Republican endorsers (and Rep. Chris Collins, arrested and charged with insider trading on August 8, was the other). He wasn’t the person closest to Trump, or the person second-closest to Trump, to be having legal troubles on Tuesday, so his story fell through the cracks a little bit—and it’s worth revisiting.
Hunter and his wife—who had previously been on his campaign payroll for years—allegedly spent $250,000 in campaign funds on things like vacations, school tuition, dental work, movie tickets, restaurant meals from fast food to high end, golfing, video games, and much more.
Hunter claims he’s “excited about going to trial with this,” claiming that a politicized Justice Department is out to get him. Bear in mind here that the Justice Department is run by a partisan Republican.
The Republican congressman added, “This is the Democrats’ arm of law enforcement, that’s what’s happening right now. It’s happening with [President] Trump, it’s happening with me. We’re going to fight through it and win and the people get to vote in November … I think they’ve used every dirty trick in the book, so it’ll go to court when they want it to.”
Again, “the Democrats’ arm of law enforcement” is run by a former Republican senator who, after Hunter endorsed Trump, became the next member of Congress to join Team Trump.
Here are a few of the expenditures Hunter claims to be “excited” to defend in court:
2. Margaret Hunter allegedly spent $200 on tennis shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods, which she then claimed as being for an annual dove hunting event for wounded warriors. [...]
7. In an attempt to justify spending campaign funds on a family trip to Italy, Hunter asked a naval base there for a tour. When officials said they couldn’t do it then, Hunter said, “Tell the Navy to go f--- themselves.”
8. They allegedly described the payment of their family dental bills as a charitable contribution to “Smiles for Life." [...]
10. Hunter allegedly used campaign funds to go a personal ski trip to Lake Tahoe when his family bank account had a negative balance and his personal bank account had $35. (He withdrew $20 from his personal bank account while there, the indictment alleges.)
Hunter can’t be taken off the California ballot and will face Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in November’s elections. Campa-Najjar said in response to Hunter’s indictment that “The people of the district deserve better than a congressman who can't follow the law, much less pass and enforce laws.”