Wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter sentenced to 8 months of home confinement

The wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) was sentenced to eight months of home confinement on Monday after admitting to participating in a conspiracy to illegally use the congressman’s campaign money for personal use. 

Margaret Hunter, 45, the former campaign manager for 43-year-old Duncan Hunter, was sentenced on the lower end of the eight- to 14-month range after she helped the prosecution with its case against her husband, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. 

The sentence was determined under the terms of the plea bargain she made with the Department of Justice in June 2019. 

The sentencing comes after both Hunters pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to convert more than $150,000 in campaign money for personal purposes. 

The former California representative was sentenced in March to 11 months in federal prison and three years probation. His sentencing is scheduled to start in January after it was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Union-Tribune.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys requested that Margaret Hunter’s sentencing take her cooperation and guilty plea into account. 

“As previously noted, this information powerfully contradicted Hunter’s false protestations of innocence and very likely led directly to his guilty plea,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing last week, according to the newspaper. “As such, her assistance clearly played a critical role in the prosecution.”

Duncan Hunter resigned in January after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) decided not to call for a special election for Hunter’s congressional seat “based on the timing.” Former California Rep. Darrell Issa (R) and Democratic candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar are facing off for the seat in November.