Judge Allows Hunter’s Affairs To Be Evidence In Criminal Case

U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan ruled on Monday that Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) recently exposed affairs could be used as evidence in his campaign finance fraud case.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1232912

Wonderful!

It appears that what I and others were unable to accomplish in 2018 will be done in the courts.

Sad that it took this long but I don’t feel that we wasted our time getting out the vote in his district.

16 Likes

Not sure the wifey thinks they are professional encounters. Well, at least not a political profession.

11 Likes

Why do they claim these represent affairs? Looks like he just hung out drinking with young ladies, then escorted them safely home like any gentleman would.

Or put up one lady in his hotel room so that she wouldn’t have to go home alone at night, same safety issue.

22 Likes

Hunter’s lawyers went on to claim that because the women were all involved in politics, the lawmaker was justified in spending campaign money on at least some of his meetings with them since the meetings “often served an overtly political purpose.”

Would that be the politics of dancing, or the politics of—oooooh—feeling good?

8 Likes

Judge, it would be extremely prejudicial for the Jury to hear what a dirtbag my client is in his personal and professional life.
And it would deprive us of the ability to blame his wife for the mismanagement of his campaign funds.

17 Likes

God, vapers are so totally cool!

3 Likes

Slam Dunc’d !!

6 Likes

Hunter is a greedy, unrepentant huckster. The logic of his lawyers is as perverse as Hunter.

5 Likes

Hey, a good lawyer should be going down that route. Just because he went home with someone, what’s their proof of what happened behind closed doors? And how did they get any evidence, of course…

3 Likes

When reaping what has been sown - remember the old song - maybe it will help it go down…

“Don’t fear the Reaper” b/c you sure did do a lot of sowing (and blaming on your wife.)

1 Like

Is Hunter’s defense that he had to flirt and sleep with lobbyists as part of the negotiations? Is that really how lobbyists conduct their business? (Granted, in a way, they are all selling themselves to the highest biddgers, so this isn’t such a stretch.) Since these flings appear to be what the mis-allocated money was spent on, I don’t see how they could refuse to allow them to be mentioned in the trial. Had the defense won on this point, it certainly would have complicated things for the prosecutors.

4 Likes

I can certainly see the relevance of the affairs in this case. There are two people who could have been involved in the misuse of campaign contributions–Hunter and his wife. If Hunter used the money for his sexual encounters that might assist the wife in her claim that she didn’t know about the misuse. This really isn’t a shocking ruling.

6 Likes

Dunkin Hunter was having all of those extramarital affairs in Washington to express his love for his wife and family and to further the conservative policy goals and agenda of his donors. This was all very clever political strategy many people will not comprehend. Everything was in the pursuit of legitimate conservative christian political purpose.

16 Likes

If only he’d been wearing a vintage plaid flannel shirt purchased for $1 from the thrift and had a waxed handle bar mustache, this wouldn’t be happening to him. Although, to be fair, you never go full hipster.

5 Likes

Full marks for that particular pop culture reference.

2 Likes

Imagine a lobbyist threatening you with the public outing and humiliation he’s about to receive if you don’t produce for him/her…

2 Likes

It’s the old “now, honey, this is not what you think” defense.

8 Likes

It may be more like “Now honey, I know what this looks like, but it isn’t that at all, and I will explain exactly why as soon as I can think of something” defense.

10 Likes

That is the long form.

2 Likes