The House Ethics Committee has confirmed Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California congressman who was among Donald Trump's earliest House supporters, is under criminal investigation for possible campaign finance violations.
The Department of Justice has asked the Committee to defer consideration of this matter and the Committee, following precedent, unanimously voted on March 22, 2017 to defer consideration of this matter at this time.
The Department of Justice request to the Ethics Committee to defer their own investigation is a signal that an active criminal investigation of Rep. Hunter's acts is underway.
Records showed that Hunter spent 2016 campaign funds on groceries, gas, video games, private school tuition, items at a Disneyland gift shop, and an airline trip for a pet rabbit. He reimbursed his campaign for about $12,000 after the charges were discovered.
He was also one of the House Republicans who pushed Congress to strip the Office of Congressional Ethics of its independence last January, a move that came not only from Duncan Hunter but from several other House Republicans who faced ethics investigations of their own.
He is also a terrible human being, but that's not strictly what the Justice Department is now investigating. They're just probing whether his campaign finance violations warrant criminal charges.