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

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

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.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate