Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday on dozens of criminal charges including wire fraud and campaign finance crimes.

The indictment, filed in federal court in San Diego, accuses the couple of converting more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses and filing false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission to cover up the true nature of the expenses.

The 60-count indictment accuses the couple of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsification of records and aiding and abetting in the prohibited use of campaign contributions. Within hours of its issuance, Hunter assailed the investigation as politically motivated just weeks before the fall campaign season gets underway. House Speaker Paul Ryan nevertheless announced that Hunter had been stripped of his committee assignments.

Hunter, 41, has been under scrutiny since April 2016, when the FEC and then The San Diego Union-Tribune began questioning expenses of campaign funds on video games, private school tuition, oral surgery and a garage door for the couple’s Alpine home. Spending of campaign funds for personal use is banned by law, to protect against undue influence by donors who might benefit from congressional actions.


By November 2017, Hunter had repaid his campaign more than $60,000 for what he identified as personal, mistaken or insufficiently documented expenditures. Under financial pressure, the congressman sold his own Alpine home and moved into the home of his father, who shares the same name and preceded him in Congress.

As a member of Congress, Hunter receives an annual salary of $174,000. Margaret Hunter, 43, was paid $3,000 a month as the congressman’s campaign manager, until April of 2017. They have two daughters and one son.

The Hunters used campaign funds for ski trips, hotel stays and European vacations, according to the indictment. They dined everywhere from Spago to Taco Bell, from Mister A’s to Wienerschnitzel.

They golfed. They bought make-up. They paid for airline tickets for friends and relatives and invested in tequila shots and gourmet steaks.


At the same time, the Hunters’ bank accounts were regularly overdrawn. They once used donations to pay the household water bill after the local utility threatened to shut off service. They swiped the campaign credit card for groceries at Vons, Albertsons and Haggen.

“Throughout the relevant period, the Hunters spent substantially more than they earned,” the indictment states. “They overdrew their bank account more than 1,100 times in a seven-year period, resulting in approximately $37,761 in ‘overdraft’ and ‘insufficient funds’ bank fees.”

The indictment alleges incident after incident in which the Hunters spent campaign money on personal outings and meals and then told their campaign treasurer the expenses were legitimate, including $1,900 spent to send a family member to a Pittsburgh Steelers game.

“To conceal and disguise these illegal personal charges, the Hunters failed to inform the treasurer that they were for a football game or that a family member was one of the attendees,” the indictment says. “When asked if the charges were campaign related, Duncan Hunter falsely confirmed, ‘Yessir.’”


In another instance, the indictment says, “Margaret Hunter spent $259.31 in campaign funds to take her family to the San Diego Natural History Museum and the Prado restaurant in Balboa Park. To conceal and disguise the illegal charges, she falsely told the treasurer that they were for gift basket items and a meal with supporters.”

Jason Forge, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office who is now a partner with the San Diego office of the law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, told the Union-Tribune by phone on Tuesday that the Hunters probably face between 21 months and five years of incarceration if convicted.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and his wife, Margaret, were indicted Tuesday on charges including wire fraud and campaign finance crimes, according to a federal indictment.

Hunter’s campaign released a statement after news of the indictment broke in which one of his attorneys, Gregory A. Vega, attacked the credibility of prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.


Vega called for the U.S. Department of Justice to recuse the prosecutors. The campaign also released a letter from Vega to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, which further accused the DOJ of a politically motivated attack on Hunter.

“The overt political leanings of two individuals intimately involved in the investigation, combined with, among other things, the Southern District’s sudden, inexplicable rush to indict my client before the general election without affording him sufficient due process, create an actual and/or apparent conflict that cannot be ignored,” the letter said.

The statement said two prosecutors involved in the investigation attended a fundraiser for Democrat Hillary Clinton in August 2015.

Spokeswoman Kelly Thornton replied, “The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. reviewed and rejected Mr. Hunter’s complaints. The Secret Service requested the prosecutors’ attendance and routinely asks prosecutors to attend events involving their protectees.”


Hunter, a Republican, is facing a challenge from Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat, on the November ballot. Campa-Najjar issued a statement saying that the chaos and corruption in Washington D.C. had gone too far.

“Today’s indictment confirms just how deep this corruption can reach, when someone like Duncan Hunter Jr. is in it for himself instead of representing the people,” the statement said. “Now is the time to put country over party and rise against the corruption and rise above the divisive politics.”

The district is strongly Republican, and a Democrat would normally have little chance of unseating a five-term incumbent. The indictment may upset that math.


Hunter began reimbursing the campaign account for improper charges as early as 2010, after Margaret Hunter spent $704 on 12 tickets to a performance of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park, the indictment said.

“In order to lower suspicions and reduce the risk of detection, Duncan Hunter decided that they would use personal funds to repay the campaign for Margaret Hunter’s purchases,” it states.

Illegal spending occurred despite a repeated warnings about the behavior and questions from campaign staff and some members of Duncan Hunter’s congressional staff, according to the indictment.

One of the more questionable campaign expenses was highlighted by the Union-Tribune in January 2017, after Hunter reported spending $600 on an airline ticket to fly the family pet rabbit across the country.


“This was nothing more than an oversight,” Hunter’s former spokesman, Joe Kasper, said at the time.

Prosecutors systematically alleged almost 200 separate occasions during which the couple used political donations for personal expenses. Some of the alleged illegal spending went on months after the Union-Tribune and federal investigators began scrutinizing the spending.

“On or about November 5, 2016, in San Diego, California, the Hunters spent $300 in campaign funds at Searsucker during a birthday party for Individual 1A,” the indictment states.

The allegations lay out a spending and cover-up pattern in which the Hunters would create official government business at sites they were visiting on vacation as campaign expenses.


On one such occasion in November 2015, when Hunter sought to tour a military base in Italy to justify using campaign funds for the family trip, Navy brass was unable to immediately accommodate the request, prosecutors said.

“After Navy officials responded that they could only provide a tour on a particular date, Duncan Hunter said he would discuss the proposed date with Margaret Hunter, then subsequently told his chief of staff ‘tell the Navy to go f*** themselves’,” the indictment states.

According to federal campaign data, Hunter’s campaign has spent more than $1.2 million since February 2017, when the criminal investigation became known publicly. At least $600,000 of that total went toward legal services and fees — but questionable spending continued as well.

In March of this year, Hunter spent nearly $4,200 in Las Vegas. The expenses include $1,800 at four-level entertainment venue called Topgolf, $1,400 at Sage, a restaurant at the Aria Hotel and Casino, and $266 at Tommy Bahama.


The campaign spent nearly $1,800 at the Alpine Tobacco Company from April 2017 to February, and $300 at Zarka Cigar Lounge in Temecula, California. From December 2017 to January of this year, Hunter reported three “food/beverage” expenses totaling more than $1,000 at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

In addition to single count of conspiracy, the document also includes 43 counts of wire fraud, including allegations that the Hunters knowingly devised a scheme to materially defraud the Hunter election campaign. Prosecutors cite emails and text messages to staff members directing them how to account for the improper spending. The Hunters also are charged with 13 counts of falsifying records in an effort to impede the investigation.

The final three criminal charges are individual counts of prohibited use of $25,000 or more in federal campaign funds.

Some Republicans were quick to say that criminal charges are not proof of guilt.


“In America we operate under the presumption of innocence,” said Tony Krvaric, chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County. “In due time a jury and voters will have their say regarding Congressman Hunter. Fair minded Americans will not prejudge the outcome.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit group that advocates for good government, said the Hunters showed a blatant disregard for federal campaign law.

“We believed he was violating the law but had no idea of the systematic and deceitful lengths to which he and his wife had gone,” said Executive Director Noah Bookbinder, whose organization filed multiple complaints against the Hunters. “We are glad to see Congressman Hunter will finally be forced to face the consequences for executing one of the most breathtaking and egregious congressional spending scandals in recent history.”

Given the breadth and scope of the allegations, Duncan Hunter should resign from Congress immediately, Bookbinder said.


The indictment Tuesday also angered some veterans, who have supported Hunter for years due in no small part to the congressman’s service as a U.S. Marine with multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“As a veteran, as somebody who really takes his oaths to our country very seriously, I have long been disappointed in Duncan Hunter’s approach to public service,” Shawn Vandiver, San Diego chapter director for the Truman National Security Project told the Union-Tribune on Tuesday. “This indictment shows he has not taken his oath to our country seriously. I’m happy to see he and his wife are being held accountable for their gross misuse of campaign funds. It is an egregious violation of his oaths as an officeholder and a U.S. Marine.

Hunter was first elected to Congress in 2008, when he won the seat his father held for 14 terms.

He was an early supporter of Donald Trump, and was among the first members of Congress to endorse the then-presidential candidate. In the weeks after Trump was elected president, Hunter’s name was floated as a possible cabinet secretary.


Hunter’s father, former Rep. Duncan L. Hunter, could not be reached by the Union-Tribune on Tuesday. On 10News, he defended his son, saying Margaret Hunter was responsible for the larger expenses, and Hunter had nothing to do with them. He said expenses at restaurants are normal for campaigns because the candidates can’t accept contributions at their official offices and must go elsewhere to conduct campaign business.

The former congressman went on to accuse prosecutors of being motivated by their political agenda. In defense of his son’s character, Hunter reminded reminded the voters that Hunter had a strong record of service to his country.

“This is the same guy who, when we were attacked on 9/11, quit his job right downtown, walked across the street, joined the Marine Corps, and deployed in three combat tours for our freedom” Hunter said. “Wait for the verdict.”

Staff writers Lauryn Schroeder and Andrew Dyer contributed to this report.


Previously: Hunter

Duncan Hunter Videos × On Now Hunter indictment sheds light on 'personal relationships' for congressman On Now Rep. Duncan Hunter leads by 8 points despite indictment On Now Duncan Hunter arraigned at federal court On Now Issa discusses Hunter indictment On Now Rep. Duncan Hunter and wife plead not guilty to charges of fraudulent campaign spending 2:41 On Now Editorial's Opinion on Duncan Hunter's plea 13:50 On Now Duncan Hunter arraigned On Now Video: Festival of Books preview: Scott Miller On Now Video: Rep. Duncan Hunter enters federal court On Now Rep. Duncan Hunter responds to indictment charges 8:53


morgan.cook@sduniontribune.com