Tuesday was a big day for the American court system, as the Paul Manafort trial concluded with verdicts and Trump’s personal attorney plead guilty to an assortment of charges that are still being analyzed.
While the media focused on the legal drama on the East Coast, a Congressman from the Southern California area and his wife were indicted on campaign finance charges and fraud.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday on charges including wire fraud and campaign finance crimes, according to a federal indictment.The document, filed Tuesday in federal court, accuses the couple of converting more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses and filing false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission. The indictment accuses the couple of crimes including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsification of records and aiding and abetting prohibited use of campaign contributions.The crimes date back to 2009, according to the indictment.
The nearly 50-page indictment describes how seemingly personal spending from the period between 2009 to 2016 may have been repackaged as work or campaign-related events.
To conceal the personal expenditures, family dental bills were listed as a charitable contribution to “Smiles for Life,” the government alleges. Tickets for the family to see Riverdance at the San Diego Civic Theatre became “San Diego Civic Center for Republican Women Federated/Fundraising,” according to the indictment. Clothing purchases at a golf course were falsely reported as golf “balls for the wounded warriors.” SeaWorld tickets worth more $250 were called an “educational tour.”“The indictment alleges that Congressman Hunter and his wife repeatedly dipped into campaign coffers as if they were personal bank accounts, and falsified FEC campaign finance reports to cover their tracks,” said U.S. Atty. Adam Braverman. “Elected representatives should jealously guard the public’s trust, not abuse their positions for personal gain. Today’s indictment is a reminder that no one is above the law.”
The response from the Hunter office is that the indictment was expedited to impact the November election.
Asked for comment about the indictment, a representative for Hunter sent an Aug. 6 letter from Hunter’s attorney, Gregory A. Vega, to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein asking him to postpone the indictment.Vega contended that there was a ‘rush to indict’ after a two-year grand jury investigation.There was ‘politically motivated’ pressure to wrap up the investigation in order to tarnish Hunter before the general election after he handily won a June primary, Vega said.
In possibly related news, the Congressional Approval Rating now stands at 17%.
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