Margaret Hunter, the wife of Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiring with her husband to “knowingly and willingly convert campaign funds for personal use.” The congressman, who represents California’s 50th Congressional District in the San Diego suburbs, responded to the news by declaring it was “sad that they were able to bludgeon her into submission.” He added, “We’ve got some Hillary lawyers there in San Diego. I look forward to going to trial,” which is scheduled for September.
The couple was indicted over the summer for allegedly misusing $250,000 in campaign funds. Each pleaded not guilty at the time, and it’s no small deal that Margaret Hunter has changed course: As the San Diego Union-Tribune explained Wednesday, “Experts say a change-of-plea hearing almost certainly means Margaret Hunter is now working with prosecutors.”
Those prosecutors allege that the couple used campaign money on purchases that included family vacations, video games, and transporting their pet rabbit on an airplane flight. The congressman's reaction to the charges was to go on TV and declare that his wife "was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did that'll be looked at too, I'm sure. But I didn't do it. I didn't spend any money illegally."
There were other signs of friction between the Hunters well ahead of this week. The Union-Tribune notes that while the couple appeared in court together last year, they’ve more recently arrived separately and sat far from each other, and have even avoided making eye contact.
Hunter’s congressional district backed Donald Trump by a solid 55-40 margin, but his scandal has already endangered his prospects at home. Last year, Hunter faced a serious challenge from Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, who made the indictment a focus of his attacks. Hunter responded with a xenophobic campaign against Campa-Najjar, who is of Mexican and Palestinian descent, in which the incumbent and his allies smeared the Democrat as a "national security risk." Hunter ended up pulling off a tight 52-48 win against Campa-Najjar, who is running again this cycle.
Hunter has continued to draw ugly headlines since then for reasons that have nothing to do with his upcoming trial. The congressman has been a loud defender of Eddie Gallagher, a former Marine who was charged with shooting noncombatants, stabbing a wounded person, and posing for a photo with a corpse. Trump has considered granting Gallagher clemency, which Hunter, who served in the Marines in Iraq, is all for. A few weeks ago, the congressman spoke in support of Gallagher by revealing that he’d also himself taken photos with an enemy’s corpse.
Hunter went further a few days later and all but admitted to committing war crimes. “I was an artillery officer, and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah, killed probably hundreds of civilians, if not scores, if not hundreds of civilians,” he said, adding, “Probably killed women and children, if there were any left in the city when we invaded. So do I get judged, too?” Very probably yes—if not by the military’s courts then in all likelihood by the civilian justice system.
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