ExGOP Rep. Hunter gets 11 months in prison
SAN DIEGO — Former California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced Tuesday to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter’s birthday party.
The exMarine’s defense attorneys had asked for home confinement, citing his military service including fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his nearly six terms in Congress. Hunter resigned from Congress in January after representing one of Southern California’s last solidly Republican districts.
Prosecutors submitted 87 pages of details to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Whelan ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing that showed a corrupt congressman who intentionally and repeatedly stole from his campaign funds for a decade.
Hunter and his wife were accused in a 60count indictment of stealing more than $250,000 in campaign contributions and trying to hide it on financial disclosure records, listing some personal expenses as contributions to wounded warriors. Each had faced up to five years in prison.
Each pleaded guilty to a single count in separate plea agreements last year.
The funds bankrolled private school tuition for his children, his wife’s shopping sprees, weekend trips with his mistress and drinking parties in Washington.
Hunter asked the court Tuesday to spare the mother of his three children jail time, and said he takes full responsibility.
Prosecutors said a 14month prison sentence was needed to punish a lawmaker who misled his constituents and whose wrongdoing has now left the 50th congressional district without a representative. A Democrat and Republican are headed to a November runoff for his seat.
And after he was caught, he ran for reelection and tried to convince voters in the district east of San Diego that as a staunch supporter of President Trump, he was the victim of a political witch hunt by leftleaning prosecutors trying to drive him out of office in Democratic California.
Hunter was ordered to report to prison on May 29.