Lawmaker’s wife gets deal in graft case
SAN DIEGO — The wife of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty Thursday to a single corruption count and agreed to testify against her husband at his trial on charges the couple spent more than $200,000 in campaign funds on trips, dinners, clothes and other personal expenses.
Margaret Hunter served as campaign chairman for her husband, and after the couple was indicted last year the six-term Republican congressman from California suggested his wife was to blame for any misuse of funds.
They both pleaded innocent, but she reversed course and withdrew her plea Thursday during a brief federal court hearing.
In a statement read by her attorney after accepting a plea agreement that could send her to prison for up to five years, she said she accepts full responsibility for her actions.
Prosecutors allege the couple engaged in more than 30 illegal transactions totaling more than $200,000 between 2010 and 2016. The spending included money for trips to Italy, Hawaii and Las Vegas and expensive dinners, as well as more mundane items like shirts and tequila shots.
Duncan Hunter said in an emailed statement that political reasons prompted the U.S. Justice Department to pressure his wife to testify. After he was indicted last year, Hunter said that the Justice Department was “the Democrats’ arm of law enforcement.”
The Hunter family is a household name in a district that covers inland areas of San Diego County and runs into Riverside County.