Judge Denies GOP Lawmaker’s Request to Move Corruption Trial

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter lost a last-ditch effort to move his campaign-corruption trial from San Diego, recuse prosecutors in the case and invoke legal immunity over some key evidence.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan on Monday rejected all those requests from the Republican congressman’s legal team, clearing the way to start a trial on Sept. 10 that lawyers estimate could last a month.

Whelan said prosecutors have enough evidence to back a 60-count grand jury indictment in which Hunter is accused of using campaign funds to entertain several women with whom he’d had affairs, pay for a family vacation to Italy and finance tuition for his children at private schools.

The legal setbacks in Monday’s rulings come on the heels of a June 13 guilty plea by Hunter’s wife, Margaret Hunter, in which she reached a plea bargain with prosecutors to admit to one criminal charge and agreed to cooperate with the government in the case against her husband.

More on Hunter’s wife cooperating here

Hunter’s attorneys argued that the congressman will be unable to have a fair trial in San Diego because of what they described as massive negative publicity, including newspaper editorials calling for him to resign and large numbers of loud, angry protesters waving “lock him up” placards outside the federal courthouse at each hearing.

Whelan said despite the publicity the conservative congressman won reelection last year “rather handily” against a Democratic opponent who made the corruption allegations a centerpiece of his campaign.

The judge also refused to find that two prosecutors engaged in misconduct by attending a fundraiser and having their pictures taken with Hillary Clinton during her campaign against Donald Trump. The government said the prosecutors were there to assist law enforcement, a claim scoffed at by Hunter’s lawyers.

“It strains the truth to say with a straight face that they were there in their official capacity,” defense attorney Greg Vega told the judge.”Then, 76 days before (Hunter’s congressional) election they file the indictment trying to flip a red seat to a blue seat.”

Prosecutor Mark Conover responded that it is long-accepted procedure for prosecutors and other government officials to attend political fundraisers without having a bias against other candidates and noted that Vega attended the same event, donated to Clinton’s campaign and had his picture taken with her. “Does that mean he is biased toward his own candidate?” Conover asked.

No Bias

Whelan said there was no evidence the prosecutors’ attendance created a political bias against a Republican candidate.

The judge also rejected arguments that charges against Hunter should be dismissed because of protections under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, which provides elected officials legal privileges for some parts of the legislative process.

Whelan said it was Hunter’s wife and campaign chief who were trying to set up a visit for the congressman to a U.S. Navy base in Italy -- not him and his congressional staff. Prosecutors say more than $14,000 was spent on the family visit to Italy under the guise of an official act in his role as a congressman.

The case is U.S. v. Hunter, 18-cr-3677, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego).

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Callahan in San Diego at bcallahan18@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter Blumberg

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