Congressman indicted for misuse of campaign funds, including $1,500 for Steam games

After more than a year of investigation by the Department of Justice, California congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife were indicted today on federal charges of campaign finance fraud. The indictment, which you can see here, states the Hunters illegally used campaign funds for personal expenses such as vacations, dental work, school tuition, plus the reason we're writing about this here: for spending over $1,500 on Steam games with a campaign credit card.

The indictment awkwardly spells out the relevant-to-us parts thusly: "... the HUNTERS spent $19.99 in Campaign funds at Steam Games to pay for video game charges, one of 82 separate occasions in 2015 that the HUNTERS spent a total of 1,528.68 in Campaign funds at Steam Games on video game charges.' (I inserted a comma for clarity.)

When Hunter was questioned about these charges back in April of 2016, his spokesman threw Hunter's son under the bus, stating the teenager had purchased one Steam game with the campaign credit card, and that the rest of the charges were 'unauthorized'. Uh-huh.

Hunter has attributed these and other expenditures as mistakes or accidents, saying in 2016 "...there was no taxpayer money involved, and I take full responsibility." The Hunters will be arraigned in San Diego on Thursday.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.