Former GOP lawmaker pardoned by Trump agrees to pay fines for misuse of campaign funds

Former Rep. Duncan Hunter, (R-CA) who was pardoned by former President Donald Trump in 2020, has agreed to pay a Federal Election Commission fine over misuse of campaign funds.

Hunter and his wife Margaret Hunter, who was also his former campaign manager, said they would pay $12,000 “solely for the purpose of settling this matter only and without admitting liability,” according to an FEC document made public this week. Hunter’s campaign committee agreed to pay a separate $4,000 fine.

The FEC said that due to his campaign’s “lack of financial resources,” the agency sought a smaller than usual fine, noting it would typically seek a “substantially higher civil penalty” of $133,000 based on the violations.

The Hunters misused the funds from 2010 to at least 2016, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). During that time, the couple used hundreds of thousands of dollars “as their personal piggy bank” while they were “drowning in debt,” the department said in a press release.

Hunter, who began representing California in Congress in 2009, pled guilty to the violations in December 2019, resigned at the beginning of 2020 and was later sentenced to 11 months in prison. His wife was sentenced to eight months of home confinement.

“Congressman Hunter violated the trust of his supporters by using hundreds of thousands of dollars they donated in good faith to his reelection campaign for personal expenditures,” David Leshner, a U.S. attorney with the Justice Department involved with the California representative’s case said in a March 2020 statement.

“Rather than admit his guilt and resign his seat when the charges came to light, or even when he was originally charged, Hunter chose to mislead the more than 700,000 people who live in the 50th congressional district,” U.S. Attorney Phil Halpern said ahead of Hunter’s sentencing. “As we now know, Hunter lied to the people about his guilt. Not once, but countless times.”