Republican Congressman Duncan D. Hunter and his wife pleaded not guilty Thursday to allegations of widespread misspending of campaign funds on personal items — from family vacations to video games to private school tuition.

The arraignment in San Diego federal court was the first court appearance for Hunter and his wife, Margaret Hunter, since being indicted by a grand jury Tuesday.

The Alpine couple is charged in a 60-count indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsification of records, bank fraud and aiding and abetting in the prohibited use of campaign contributions.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Gallo allowed both to remain out of custody, with Duncan Hunter released on a $15,000 bond secured by the signature of a related, financially responsible adult, and his wife released on a $10,000 bond under similar conditions. Both had to be fingerprinted by the U.S. Marshals Service and give DNA samples.


Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Halpern told the judge that while the government considers the allegations “to be extremely serious,” the pair have shown no signs of being a flight risk during the investigation. He said the couple also didn’t have any substantial assets and were “living paycheck to paycheck.”

The judge set additional conditions of release, including restricting travel to within the continental U.S. Duncan Hunter must also submit to drug testing and give up two guns that he owns.

The couple arrived separately with their attorneys and did not speak to one another in the courtroom, which was filled to capacity with reporters, investigators, attorneys and other onlookers. The Hunters faced the judge side by side and held stoic expressions during the short hearing.

About an hour later, Hunter emerged from the courthouse and continued down the sidewalk silently, trailed by news cameras and protesters chanting “Shame!” Before leaving, Hunter removed a sign reading “Lock him up” that a protester had placed on the windshield of the vehicle he was riding in.


Also Thursday, Hunter sent a letter to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, asking to be temporarily removed from his positions on the House Committees on Armed Services, Education and the Workforce, and Transportation and Infrastructure. Ryan had already removed Hunter from the committees upon Hunter’s refusal to step down.

“I fully intend to resume my position as an active member of these committees upon a successful resolution of pending legal matters,” Hunter wrote. “The charges against me are politically motivated and without merit. I intend to fight them fully. In the meantime, I look forward to quickly clearing my good name, and I will continue to represent the people of California’s 50th District.”

The letter adds to Hunter’s comments a day earlier, when he assailed the prosecution as a “witch hunt” and flatly denied ever using his campaign funds for personal expenses.

His attorney, Greg Vega, stopped to address reporters after the hearing Thursday, saying the investigation was “politically motivated” and that he was prepared to fight the charges.


“On behalf of Congressman Hunter and his wife, Margaret, we are hoping the public will keep an open mind until we have an opportunity to respond in a court of law, not the court of public opinion,” Vega said.

He added that Hunter had faced “more difficult battles” in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine.

Vega reiterated accusations that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was acting out of political bias, pointing to two prosecutors on the case who attended a Democratic fundraiser for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2015 in La Jolla.

The prosecutors were there in an official capacity at the request of the U.S. Secret Service as a matter of routine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.


Vega said others with the Department of Justice have not heard of similar requests from protection details.

“We believe that there is a possible cover-up as far as why two of the prosecutors in this investigation were at the fundraiser and then were intimately involved in this investigation,” Vega told reporters after the hearing.

The Secret Service has declined to discuss the matter, citing the litigation.

The indictment details some 200 instances of personal expenses using campaign funds. The $250,000 total went toward everything from airfare for a pet rabbit to tequila to Pittsburgh Steelers tickets, according to the indictment. Using political contributions for personal costs is illegal under federal election law.


The couple is also accused of lying to cover up the spending and of continuing to draw from campaign coffers despite warnings from staffers and inquiries from investigators and reporters.

Their personal bank account was overdrawn some 1,100 times over a seven-year period, prosecutors allege.

Hunter is paid $174,000 a year as a member of Congress, while Margaret Hunter receives $3,000 a month as her husband’s campaign manager.

The criminal investigation began after the Federal Elections Commission and The San Diego Union-Tribune began raising questions about certain campaign expenses in April 2016.


Hunter reviewed the matter and repaid more than $60,000 back to the campaign, calling the expenditures mistaken, personal or insufficiently documented. He sold his home in Alpine to make the payment and moved in with his father, also named Duncan Hunter, a longtime former congressman.

Hunter, who succeeded his father in 2008, is up for re-election in a runoff race in November. He represents the 50th congressional district, a region that includes the East County and portions of the North County, into Temecula.

Outside the courthouse after the arraignment, dozens of protesters with Indivisible San Diego waited alongside news cameras for the Hunters to emerge.


“To see this day we all expected to come finally got here,” said protester Kathy Stadler, 45, of San Diego. “It’s not good — it’s incredibly sad — but it shows the system may still be working. There are checks and balances still.”

Hunter’s opponent in the November election, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, addressed reporters outside the courthouse after the arraignment.

“Hopefully we can explore unity and not exploit division for too long,” he said. “There has been too much chaos, corruption and greed, and I think that chapter in our history is coming to term. My hope is to represent the people of this district and bring national pride, not national shame to this community.”

Campa-Najjar also said that before the campaign turns to “mudslinging” he wanted to take the opportunity to thank Hunter for his service and for “fighting the wars that we waged abroad so someone like me could have the luxury to stand here to fight the ones we have at home.”


Campa-Najjar is a Palestinian Mexican American.

“Congressman Hunter served our country honorably abroad,” he added. “I happen to think that man who served our country never made it home from the battlefield. I think Washington chewed him up and spat him out and engulfed him in the corruption that has plagued Washington for too long.”

The Hunters are set to return to court on Sept. 4.

Prosecutors told the judge they are ready to hand over to defense attorneys discovery in the case — enough to fit on a two-terabyte hard drive — as soon as possible.


Staff writer Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this report.

Previously: Hunter


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kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis