Wife of ex-Rep. Duncan Hunter gets eight months home detention for campaign spending violations

The wife of former Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced Monday to three years probation, including eight months of home detention, in connection with the couple illegally using campaign contributions for personal expenses. 

The sentence was handed down by Judge Thomas Whelan for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, closing a roughly four-year investigation into the spending of the contributions by Hunter, who resigned in January from his House seat representing the San Diego area, and his wife, who was his campaign manager.

Margaret Hunter used a campaign credit card and other political funds, in violation of federal law, for such expenses as vacations, tuition and fast-food meals. The charges were filed in 2018.

The 45-year-old Hunter avoided jail time in part by cooperating with the investigation and pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiring to convert more than $150,000 in campaign money to personal use.  In exchange for her cooperation, prosecutors dropped 59 other counts that found roughly 200 instances of illegal spending, most of them by Margret Hunter. 

In March, Judge Whelan sentenced the ex-congressman to 11 months in prison. He has yet to begin serving his term because of the coronavirus and is scheduled to report to prison in January, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.