December 23, 2020

Inside the Trump Pardons: It Helps To Be a Man

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the pride of the Marine Corps, after pleading guilty to using campaign funds to pay for his extramarital affairs.Denis Poroy/ZUMA

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Two years ago Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted on charges of using campaign funds for personal business, including housing supplies, tuition for the kids, a family vacation to Italy, and more. Duncan, a former Marine officer, immediately threw Margaret under the bus, claiming that she had been his campaign manager and he had no idea what she was up to. Prosecutors, however, allege that Duncan not only knew what was going on, but had used campaign funds to pay for five different extramarital affairs between 2010 and 2016.

In 2019 Margaret and Duncan both pleaded guilty. In 2020 Margaret, who had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, was sentenced to eight months of house arrest, which she is currently serving. Duncan, who held out to the end and has been a vocal defender of Donald Trump, was sentenced to 11 months in prison starting in January. Two weeks ago, Margaret filed for divorce.

Yesterday, Trump pardoned Duncan, who will end up serving no time at all. Margaret is still under home confinement and has another four months left.

Boo yah.

POSTSCRIPT: In case you’re curious, Trump issued 15 pardons on Tuesday, all of them to men. He also commuted five sentences, three of them to women accused of small-time drug offenses.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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