Justice Department prosecutors alleged on Monday that Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) used campaign contributions to have multiple extramarital affairs, including a $1,000 ski vacation with a female lobbyist.
According to the court filing, Hunter started using the campaign funds to “carry out a series of intimate relationships” with five women soon after he first entered office in 2009.
The first woman (“Individual 14”) was a lobbyist. For about three years, Hunter dipped into his campaign contributions to pay for a couple’s ski getaway (which cost more than $1,000), a road trip to Virginia Beach, and hotel stays, according to prosecutors.
After their relationship ended in 2012, the GOP lawmaker allegedly carried out affairs with four other women until at least 2016 — at his donors’ expense.
Hunter’s donors unwittingly paid for his dinner dates, vacations, and Uber rides with the women, according to the DOJ. In several instances, the filing said, the Uber rides were from the woman’s residence after they engaged in “intimate personal activities.”
Hunter and his wife Margaret were co-indicted in August 2018 for misusing $250,000 in campaign funds and covering up the alleged fraud. They both pleaded not guilty, and the congressman tried to point the blame at his wife during a Fox News interview.
A little less than a year later, Margaret Hunter switched her plea to guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Read the filing below:
