Indicted GOP congressman humiliated in court — by his own lawyer

Duncan Hunter just keeps losing.

On Monday, a federal judge denied Hunter’s motion to dismiss the campaign finance violation case against him. The disgraced GOP congressman from California was indicted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to subsidize his high-flying ways, including financing several extramarital affairs.

Hunter tried to get the well-documented case against him tossed by claiming that the deep state is out to get him. Specifically, he said that the government attorneys working the case were biased against him because they’d once attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser.

The judge didn’t buy it. Ruling from the bench, he disagreed with Hunter that the government attorneys were politically motivated and refused to dismiss the charges.

And Hunter didn’t just lose in court; he was also humiliated by his own lawyer.

That nefarious Hillary Clinton fundraiser, allegedly the foundation of a powerful political plot against Hunter? It turns out that Hunter’s own lawyer, Gregory Vega, attended the fundraiser.

Yes, the same lawyer who wrote a 22-page brief about how the presence of government attorneys at the Clinton fundraiser was so problematic. Yes, the same lawyer who has donated thousands of dollars to Clinton’s campaigns and even more to other Democratic candidates and groups.

And unlike the government attorneys Hunter tried to smear as politically motivated, who were there in their official capacity providing law enforcement support, Vega was at the fundraiser because he wanted to support Hillary Clinton and give her money.

Vega’s misstep allowed the prosecutors to mock the absurdity of his argument that anyone who had attended a Clinton fundraiser was automatically biased against his client.

That wasn’t all. The judge also ruled that Hunter can’t have the trial moved. Hunter wanted the trial to be held in the Eastern District of California, rather than in San Diego, where it is currently venued. Why did he want it moved? Because Trump carried the counties in the Eastern District, and Hunter wanted a friendly jury.

In denying the request, the judge noted that Hunter won re-election in 2018 even though local papers like the San Diego Union-Tribune ran editorials against him, so it didn’t seem it would be impossible for Hunter to get a fair shake in San Diego.

This all comes on top of the fact that last week, the judge ruled that evidence of Hunter’s extramarital affairs can be used at trial. Hunter allegedly used campaign funds to squire his lobbyist girlfriends around D.C.

Now, Hunter’s going to trial in San Diego, which he apparently sees as a dangerous liberal hotbed. The jury will hear evidence about all his affairs. And his own wife has turned on him and agreed to a plea deal.

Looks like he just can’t win.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.