USA TODAY International Edition
2 indicted congressmen win their House races
Both Republicans lead Trump-friendly districts
WASHINGTON – The justice system may not have spoken yet but the voters did Tuesday, re-electing two House Republicans – Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York – despite the fact that both face criminal charges.
Hunter easily defeated Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar despite facing a 60-count indictment claiming that he and his wife, Margaret, who also was charged, used his campaign account as a personal slush fund to finance an extravagant lifestyle.
The Hunters were indicted in August. Duncan Hunter claimed then that the charges were politically motivated and he compared himself to President Donald Trump as another Republican being mistreated by the Justice Department.
He won in a solidly Republican suburban San Diego district that Trump won by 15 percentage points in 2016.
Collins was indicted in August on charges of insider trading. While serving on the board of directors of a drug company, he is accused of tipping off others that a key drug the company was developing had failed in testing.
Collins, the first sitting member of Congress to be indicted since 2005, defeated Democrat Nate McMurray. Trump had carried the western New York district by 24 percentage points.