Duncan Hunter and his wife plead not guilty to charges they misused campaign funds

[fleur-de-lisa]

Source: CNN

Republican Congressman Duncan D. Hunter and his wife, Margaret, pleaded not guilty Thursday morning to federal charges they stole quarter million dollars in campaign funds to furnish their lavish lifestyle.

After the Hunters were indicted earlier this week for spending campaign money on expenses that included a $14,000 Italian vacation and thousands of dollars on routine items like groceries, bedding and other household items, Hunter said the charges were erroneous and politically motivated.

The Hunters are accused of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, falsification of records and prohibited use of campaign contributions, among other charges.

Standing before Judge William Gallo in San Diego, both Hunters remained defiant and showed little emotion. They pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/23/politics/duncan-hunter-not-guilty-plea/index.html

[bearsfootball516]

1. Good luck with that.

The evidence is pretty overwhelming and clear.

[mobeau69]

5. They'll use the "What you see and hear isn't true" defense.

[Achilleaze]

8. "Truth isn't truth" - The classic Ghouliani republican bullshit defense

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

18. 20 years of making Bill Clinton jokes about "Is, is"

and these bastards let Rudy 'the teeth'...make some outlandish statement like that. Bill had the stones to go under oath. Hillary too. Fuc'in bush cheney got the "lets have a behind doors chit chat about the war 'evidence'" treatment...(not under oath.) We need ONE standard for all.

[Turbineguy]

2. That money was

alternately spent.

[Pachamama]

3. They are toast...

Bye-Bye

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

4. His dad must be so proud...

Seriously...he must be very proud his kid turned out just like he did. Cats Cradle comes to mind.

[atreides1]

13. One difference

Hunter senior made sure he wasn't caught and his buddy Duke Cunningham took the fall!!!

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

17. Shades of the first decade of debacle in Afghanistan and Iraq....Gods I hate that man.

As I recall, his son was an up and comer then. Just not as sharp as the old man in being criminal.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Remember that a "not guilty" plea doesn't mean necessarily

absence of guilt or culpability. It's code for "I'd like a trial, please".

And you gamble that either the prosecutor didn't make a case and/or the judge or jury acquits you.

If found guilty, you can bargain for your punishment as most statutes have a range of penalty depending on your situation.

My guess is that the Hunters are playing the long game re. punishment. (If you plead guilty, you usually get the harshest penalty.)

[Democrats_win]

11. Right now they seem very prideful.

They're just going through the motions. Someone needs to sit them down and "read them the riot act?" Tell them that they are filthy thieves who stole from hard working people. They should be embarrassed and be humbled.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. A trial is a risk in an open-shut case. Shows lack of contrition (though a right). Heavier sentence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. "If you plead guilty, you usually get the harshest penalty"

Can we have the stats on that, please? Because that goes against what everyone normally says. And logic.

[joshcryer]

29. You always plead not guilty the first time.

I would be very surprised if they take this thing to trial.

They will be told in no uncertain terms that a jury is not going to be happy about reading dozens and dozens of times they spend huge amounts of money on petty spending. All the times the wife went out to eat, all the times the husband went golfing.

And they will have to take the stand because they'll have to explain each and every expense. Being asked repeatedly questions like "do you think golf shorts are campaign related?" will get very ugly.

And the wife's texts/emails talking about making up completely expense stuff just puts her dead to rights. Answering those questions is basically impossible.

[fleur-de-lisa]

39. They don't have the money for a lenghty trial.

Unless some rich republican wants to blow a wad of cash to defend these two grifting idiots.

[0rganism]

7. do they understand that "everybody does it" is not a real defense?

this will be interesting

[Achilleaze]

9. What they actually meant was

"every republican does it."

[watoos]

10. Hey maybe

they are hoping to get one of Trump's newly appointed judges?

1 wacko Trump loving juror on the Manafort jury caused a lot of injustice.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

20. Interesting enough thats about the true percentage of don ivans supporters...1 in 12.

But that one is one tick away from satanic in their ways of doing things. Trumpers must be stamped out like a campfire in the morning. And have a bucket of water thrown on their heads. Know your neighborhood. I remember everyone who had a trum sign.

[Me.]

12. How Can They Afford 2 Legal Teams?

[atreides1]

16. You know that means?

Someone is footing the bill and there's a chance that one of them is going to rat out the other, for a better deal!!!

Who will turn first??

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

22. One has to handle the divorce proceedings? Heh heh.

I wonder if this is where Mrs D makes her break?

[joshcryer]

24. They have her writing texts/emails about covering up expenses.

She's 100% dead to rights.

At one point she bemoaned that their "old treasurer" didn't delve into the expenditures. Implying that they had a crooked treasurer at one point who would cook the books for them.

But all these expenses are public knowledge, by law, all it takes is a reporter calling up various vendors and asking what was bought. Morgan Cook was the reporter who blew this open.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

25. I'm loving me some Morgan Cook.

The graft and dishonesty is appalling. THIS is what their religion taught them is ok? Jesus weeps.

[Anon-C]

31. Elle est formidable!

[joshcryer]

32. BTW, if you're interested, there's a video where she explains it:

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/visuals/100729586-132.html

She gets into the details of how they figured out the family was using the campaign finance account as a personal piggy bank of sorts. Really top notch reporting by her and her team. They would call vendors up and ask what they sold, wound up calling a gift shop for an alleged food purchases; the gift shop only sold pez dispensers as food.

[Anon-C]

40. Thank you!

[joshcryer]

23. Duncan Hunter already threw his wife under the bus at an interview yesterday.

He said he didn't know if she did anything.

Most of the texts and emails are her doing the coverup.

When the wife arrived at the court house she passed him and didn't even make eye contact.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

27. Reminds me of a song...About the Big "D".

[Me.]

41. What I First Thought Of Was

DIVORCE

[Bernardo de La Paz]

14. At least 5 charges. Seriesly Yuge trouble. . . . nt

[matt819]

15. I can't wait

to see the rabbit entered as evidence.

[fleur-de-lisa]

37. I hope the bunny has to testify.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Perhaps they hope husband and wife testimony is prohibited against each other

[RussBLib]

26. so what's the next step here?

They have been indicted and arraigned. I didn't see any info about the next events or dates.

How quickly they ran to the "witch hunt" defense.

[joshcryer]

30. They are back in court Sept 4.

I think they will get their trial date then.

They'll probably make some kind of motion to extend it until after the election.

Hopefully the judge will shoot it down and they'll get convicted or plead guilty before the election.

[Archae]

33. Hunter is blaming "The Deep State," naturally.

Because blaming "the Jews" won't get him anywhere nowadays.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/duncan-hunter-im-excited-go-trial-corruption-can-expose-anti-trump-deep-state/

[BigmanPigman]

35. Yep, he is using the tRump playbook.

It is a politically motivated witch hunt and is fake news promoted by the Dems. I am surprised he didn't blame Obama for it somehow.

[stuffmatters]

42. And our local SD tv news is mostly letting him get away with it.

All our local affiliate news have given both Hunter Jr and Sr(who surfaced screaming witch hunt Tues night) the majority of airtime to
deliver their victim scenario. I have yet to hear any of them state outright that it is The Trump Justice Dept bringing the charges through a Trump appointed Federal Attorney. Or to ennumerate the charges many of which scammed wounded warriors, boys and girls clubs...really repulsive stuff to San Diego voters...even in Hunters's inland district.

Have you seen the latest? Darrell Issa is somehow trying to insert himself as the solution candidate (I don't know how since the ballot cannot be altered) Good old,unimagineably rich Darrell...hmmm, also a rabid Trumper. Can't help but wonder if Issa, having been forced into retirement by a rapidly purpling district adjacent to Hunter's, and knowing Hunter's facing an inevitably ironclad trial.....like maybe somebody should tell all the Hunter voters that their Deep State Phone Call is probably coming from inside their own House.
heh,heh

[BigmanPigman]

43. Issue wanted to go after Hunters seat but legally

he can't according to election rules...It is too late. Hunter could remove his name from the ballot but won't. I watched local SD Fux Ruse the night the indictment came down just to see how they would cover it and they did list all the stuff he spent campaign money on and they gave his Dem opponent air time to state what his background is and talk about corruption. I was pleasantly surprised. I guess other reports have been going easy on him since then. Figures!

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

34. Wasn't enough to have a nice life in CA and a good job...

to have a nice(?) family and not have to worry about income or healthcare. They just had to have more. Shameful on top of criminal.
The law of instant gratification is the law they live by. None other.

[pansypoo53219]

36. greedy to the end. hope this ends up worse for them. like zimmerman.

[Power 2 the People]

38. Not guilty my ass. His father taught him well. Grifters to the core.

This is the jackass who insisted ISIS was coming in through Mexico.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

44. The thing that had me seeing red

was the golf shorts story. She told him to buy shorts at the golf course pro shop (Always pricey.) and that they could then say that they had bought golf balls for the "Wounded Warrior Project. "

This bitch is shameless. But that he went along with it makes him lower than hammered whale shit (Sorry, it's an old NAVY expression meaning that there is nothing lower than that.).