The House Ethics Committee told Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who pleaded guilty in his criminal case this week, that he needs to stop voting.
Committee chair Ted Deutch (D-FL) and ranking member Kenny Marchant (R-TX) sent a letter to Hunter laying out a House rule mandating that convicted lawmakers “should refrain from voting on any question at a meeting of the House or of the Committee of the Whole House” unless they’ve been exonerated or reelected after their conviction.
“This provision of House Rules was promulgated to preserve public confidence in the legislative process when a sitting Member of Congress has been convicted of a serious crime,” Deutch and Marchant wrote.
They warned Hunter that while the rule is not binding, “you risk subjecting yourself to action” by the committee and the House if he violates it.
On Tuesday, Hunter pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to steal campaign funds after he was indicted for using $250,000 in campaign donations on personal luxuries, including extramarital affairs.
The congressman, scheduled to be sentenced on March 17, faces up to five years in prison.
Hunter had originally pleaded “not guilty” and insisted in a Trumpian fashion that the case was a “witch hunt,” then he suddenly announced on Monday his intention to switch pleas.
The Republican lawmaker has not announced whether he plans to resign, but his spokesperson told TPM via email that he is “currently in DC discussing next steps with Republican leadership.”
“He will have an announcement on his future plans when he has concluded those discussion,” the spokesperson said.
Read the letter below:
Stop him from voting by expelling him from the House.
What’s the big deal? Did he run those scams with the assist of a private email server or out of Benghazi? Did he buy stock in Burisma?
“take a Democrat down with matters of sex and a Republican down with matters of money” Seems like he was just playing by the rules.
Ducky Hunter is a grifter. He is just like Trump’s other early supporter, Chris Collins, a grifter. Both saw a fellow crook, and a chance to profit from their association with him.
Hunter is not going to resign since he is unemployable. Guy will never get a job. But he is used to a certain standard of living - funded by campaign cash - and a certain level of adultery - funded by campaign cash. The problem is that he can’t survive without his $151K/year congressional pay… so he will hold on as long as he can.
I just hope he runs for re-election, claims it was a deep state frame-up job on a military vet… That is probably enough to get him into the general election.
And the best part of all is that the republicans have defended him for a full two years, now if they expell him, they will have to explain why they supported him. Best to let the republicans drift for a while with this guy on their side of the aisle.
Guy was spending much of the money he misused from his campaign on mistresses (or perhaps women of ill repute is more accurate, their character is not exactly clear…) so he dipped in both scandal pots so to speak…
Here’s you and me, foolishly thinking that voting is the sum total of the job Hunter was elected to do.
Clearly he should stay in the House to sweep the floors, do some flower-arranging, replenish everyone’s stash of bottled water, sell his colleagues’ votes to lobbyists …