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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRep. Duncan Hunter, do the honorable thing. Resign. - By The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board
In 2008, Duncan D. Hunter was given a golden opportunity to be a successful, influential national politician for the rest of his life. The decision of his father Duncan L. Hunter to relinquish the East County congressional seat he had held for more than a quarter-century created an opening that the younger Hunter, then 31, was ready to roar through.
It wasnt just name recognition that propelled Hunters candidacy. His personal history of enlisting and serving so honorably in the Marines shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, resonated far and wide in a region with numerous active-duty and retired military personnel and many otherwise deeply patriotic residents. After easily winning election in November 2008, Hunter became the first member of Congress to have served in a direct combat role in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Well-versed and outspoken on issues involving the military, Hunter had every reason to expect a House career as distinguished as that of his father, another veteran who rose to be the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and one of the leading voices in Washington on the Pentagon, the defense budget and U.S. foreign policy.
Instead, Hunter badly lost his way, seemingly becoming corrupt to the point of caricature. His once-promising political career is now in ruins as a result. A 47-page indictment released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Diego laid out how Hunter and wife Margaret had spent more than $250,000 in campaign donations for the personal benefit of the couple and their children from 2010 to 2017. The indictment makes the case for a staggering 60 criminal counts ranging from illegal use of campaign funds to conspiracy to wire fraud to falsifying records. Their purchases ranged from the banal inexpensive Uber trips to the preposterous a $14,261 family vacation in Italy in late 2015.
After serious questions first arose about his use of campaign funds for video games, private school tuition, dental surgery and a garage door in early 2016, Hunter initially depicted this spending as a result of mistaken purchases by his young son or sloppy campaign paperwork. But the indictment demolishes that craven lie. It shows that in the first few months of 2010, his campaign treasurer had already warned him about his wifes improper use of a campaign credit card and suggested it be taken away something Hunter declined.
The indictment shows both Hunters repeatedly tried to create cover stories that they could use to justify their expenses as somehow related to campaigning. Hunter tried to set up a visit to a U.S. Navy base in Italy in 2015 so he could just claim an official dimension to his family vacation. When Navy officials couldnt accommodate his preferred date for a tour, Hunter told an aide, Tell the Navy to go f*** themselves. That same year, Hunters wife told him to buy shorts for a trip to Hawaii at a golf shop so they could claim the expense was actually [golf] balls for Wounded Warriors. This is despicable.
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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-duncan-hunter-indictment-20180821-story.html#
awesomerwb1
(4,268 posts)This guy is another horribly corrupted piece of work.
"Golf balls for Wounded Warriors". This charge should go well in his heavily military district.
MineralMan
(146,325 posts)He won't resign, but maybe he'll lose in November. That would be wonderful!
atreides1
(16,091 posts)....capable of doing anything honorable?
Zinke, Hunter, Bannon...all military veterans, and yet all without the smallest vestiges of honor or integrity!!!
hibbing
(10,107 posts)That will certainly be well received in San Diego.
Peace
ProfessorGAC
(65,150 posts). . .they'll vote for him anyway.
librechik
(30,676 posts)Al Franken: oh, is it possible I may have been out of line? Why of course, I will save you the embarrassment of congressional due process and simply skulk quietly away
ALL REPUBLICANS: I don't care how much evidence you have, you'll still have to drag me out kicking and biting no matter the costs!