Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, routinely — and illegally — used campaign funds to pay personal bills big and small, from luxury vacations to kids’ school lunches and delinquent family dentistry bills, according to a stinging 47-page indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence.The detailed indictment portrays the Hunters as living well beyond their means and said they “knowingly conspired with each other” to convert campaign funds to personal use.Federal prosecutors contend that the Hunters repeatedly misrepresented what their expenses were for — in one instance buying personal clothing at a golf course so that the purchase “could be falsely reported to the treasurer as ‘balls for the wounded warriors,'” the indictment says.