A Republican congressman spent thousands in campaign funds in pursuing romantic relationships with at least five women who were not his wife, prosecutors alleged.
Court documents released Monday revealed new details in the corruption case against Rep. Duncan Hunter. Prosecutors said the California congressman improperly and repeatedly dipped into campaign funds for nearly a decade while carrying out affairs with three lobbyists, a staffer in a different congressional office, and one of his own staffers.
The new filings claim that Hunter, who was first elected in 2008, spent thousands of dollars on these romantic pursuits, including for bar tabs, meals, hotel stays, concerts, vacations, flights, and Uber rides to and from late-night trysts.
The salacious allegations are the latest revelations in the high-profile corruption case that began with a bombshell indictment in August 2018 alleging that Duncan Hunter and his wife Margaret “illegally converted and stole more than $250,000 in campaign funds to purchase goods and services for their personal use and enjoyment.” They were charged with dozens of counts, including bank fraud, wire fraud, falsification of records, and improper use of campaign funds.
Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds earlier this month and is expected to provide damaging testimony against her husband if and when his own case goes to trial later this year.
The women in yesterday’s court filings are identified only as Individual 14, Individual 15, Individual 16, Individual 17, and Individual 18.
Hunter is alleged to have met Individual 14 in April 2009 and had a three-year affair with her, including spending more than $1,000 dollars in campaign funds for a hotel, airfare, alcohol, and other amenities during a ski getaway for the two near Lake Tahoe in California in January 2010 while saying he was at a conference. Other alleged campaign finance violations stemmed from a March 2010 “double date” road trip to Virginia Beach with another congressman, where Hunter spent more than $1,000 dollars in campaign funds, and a March 2010 Jack Ingram concert where Hunter spent $121 in campaign funds. The filing also notes a June 2011 stay at a D.C. hotel and a June 2011 golf outing.
Hunter allegedly committed similar campaign violations with the other four other women.
In 2012, Hunter began his relationship with Individual 15, another office’s staffer, and began staying at her home “nearly every night.” The congressman allegedly expensed Uber rides from her place to his congressional office to his campaign and also used campaign funds to pick up a $93 cocktail tab at a speakeasy.
Hunter began a relationship with Individual 16, a staffer in his own office, around January 2015, with one of their outings including “a ‘triple date’ with two other couples at the H Street Country Club” where Hunter “spent $202 in campaign funds for drinks and snacks at the bar, plus another $20 on the Uber ride,” the filings state.
Prosecutors also say Hunter improperly spent funds on Uber rides in 2015 to and from the home of Individual 17, a lobbyist, on a night where he “engaged in intimate personal activities unrelated” to his campaign or his duties in Congress, and in 2016, during his affair with Individual 18, another lobbyist.
Prosecutors said that revealing the details of Hunter spending campaign funds in this manner was relevant for a number of reasons, including the fact that his spending “established the wholly personal nature of Hunter’s related expenditures of campaign funds,” that these affairs “demonstrated his knowledge and intent to embezzle campaign funds,” and that the carrying out of these relationships “furnished part of his motive to embezzle from the campaign.”
“Carrying out all these affairs did not come cheap,” prosecutors quipped.
Prosecutors have long alleged that Hunter and his wife flagrantly violated campaign finance laws for years as they used campaign funds on everything from clothing and vacations to tuition and entertainment. Some of their more egregious alleged purchases include $462.46 on a bachelor party’s steak dinner and thirty shots of tequila, $216.50 on running shoes that was disguised as funds for a wounded warrior charity, and $250 to fly their rabbit out for a family vacation.
The husband and wife are alleged to have coordinated their efforts in concealing the true nature of their spending too. The extent to which Margaret Hunter now plans to cooperate is not yet fully known.
Monday’s filings are just a part of a flurry of back and forth motions between prosecutors and Duncan Hunter’s defense team over the last 24 hours, including a government request for the judge to admonish Hunter, who has been trying to paint his prosecution as politically motivated, for making public statements that could poison the jury pool. Hunter’s attorneys asked the judge to remove the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California from the case, arguing that prosecutors in the office are tainted by politics because of attending a Clinton fundraiser in 2015.
The trial is set begin in September.
