Calif. congressman pleads guilty to misusing campaign funds

SAN DIEGO — A federal prosecutor vowed Tuesday to seek jail time for California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who pleaded guilty Tuesday t o misusing $150,000 in campaign funds for his own personal expenses.

The six-term Republican, who had fought the allegations for more than a year, showed no emotion in the courtroom and only spoke in affirming his guilty plea.

Outside the federal courthouse in San Diego, Hunter, 42, offered a brief statement, saying, “I failed to monitor and account for my campaign spending. I made mistakes and that’s what today was all about.” He said he would discuss his future later.

In his plea deal, Hunter said he and his wife dipped into the election funds between 2010 and 2016 more than 30 times and tried to hide it by falsely reporting the expenses — from their daughter’s birthday party at the famed Hotel Del Coronado to an outing with friends in Washington at a French bistro — were campaign-related.

An early supporter of President Donald Trump’s 2016 election bid, Hunter is the second Republican congressman to plead guilty to federal charges this year.

The former combat Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan declined to say when he would leave office, where he has spent11 years. He left the courthouse accompanied by his father, former Rep. Duncan Hunter Sr.

Hunter’s departure will mark the end of a political dynasty in Southern California’s most Republican district. His father represented the district for 28 years before Hunter’s 2008 election.

Prosecutor Phil Halpern noted Hunter’s honorable service in the Marine Corps and his family’s place in the 50th Congressional District. But he had a sharp rebuke for the congressman’s claim that the investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt.” “No figure, regardless of what office they occupy, should be allowed in this country to cry witch hunt or fake news and attempt to deflect their criminal wrongdoings,” Halpern said.

In October, former fourterm Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York pleaded guilty in an insider trading case, a day after he resigned from Congress. He faces a maximum sentence of about four years in prison.