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SAN DIEGO (AP) – Nearly a year after US representative Duncan Hunter suggested that his wife was accused of using $ 250,000 in campaign funds, Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty Thursday to one briber and had agreed to testify against her husband during her appearance. Next trial.
Hunter, who held the position of campaign manager for her husband, appeared in US court in San Diego and changed a previous guilty plea. In a statement read by her lawyer after the hearing, she said she took on all the responsibility.
"I have a lot of remorse and I apologize," she said.
In her plea agreement, she said that she would help the prosecution and testify on their behalf. She also agreed to provide documents.
The misuse of funds has occurred from 2010 to 2016. She could be sentenced to five years from her conviction on 17 September.
Californian Congressman Gregory Vega's lawyer told the San Diego Union Tribune that Margaret Hunter's decision should not have an impact on his client's corruption record that would have allowed the couple to spend more money. $ 250,000 in campaign funds for a lavish lifestyle, funding an Italian and Hawaiian vacation. , tequila and theater tickets while their household budget was in the red.
Former US Attorney Jason A. Forge said it was rare for one spouse to plead when the other's case has not been resolved.
Forge sued the California representative, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned from Congress in 2005 and served more than seven years in prison for one of the worst corruption scandals ever to have a federal legislator fall.
Forge said Margaret Hunter was perhaps ready to testify about the state of their marriage and the weight she had on spending.
Since last year 's indictment, the Hunters have appeared in US court in San Diego separately with their own lawyers and have also left separately.
In an interview with Fox News last year, the six-member congressman said his campaign had made mistakes, that he had given a proxy to his wife when he had was deployed as a sailor in Iraq in 2003 and had managed his finances during his last five terms. in the office.
"She can dispel any doubt that he could have raised up until his absence in Washington and that she was 100% responsible for all this activity," Forge said.
The couple, who has three children, pleaded not guilty last year after a federal grand jury accused them of spending campaign money on tequila, golf outings, sports Costco's schooling and purchases between 2009 and 2016.
They are also accused of trying to conceal illegal expenses in federal campaign finance reports. Duncan's lawyers said in 2017 that the couple had repaid about $ 60,000 for the campaign.
Hunter, a close ally of President Donald Trump, was one of two federal Republican lawmakers to be re-elected last November after being charged with bribery. His trial is scheduled for September and his lawyers have described these allegations as witch hunts for political purposes.
Vega, his lawyer, wrote in a letter to the Justice Ministry in August urging prosecutors to delay any post-election action that "although there may be evidence of infidelity," he said. 39, irresponsibility or dependence on alcohol, the underlying facts are not tantamount to criminal activity. "
The Navy veteran recently pleaded for the dismissal of a war crimes case against a decorated SEAL, which the president reviewed.
The head of special operations, Edward Gallagher, is accused of stabbing to death a fighter of the Islamic State teenager under his care in Iraq in 2017, and then organizing his re-registration ceremony with the body.
Hunter admitted taking a picture with a fighter who died during his stay in Iraq.
The Hunter family is well known in a district that covers inland areas of San Diego County and runs through Riverside County. His father, also named Duncan, spent nearly three decades in one of the most Republican congressional districts of Southern California.
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