Judge Allows Details On Affairs At Rep. Duncan Hunter Trial

Speaker 1: 00:00 Congressman Duncan Hunter's personal relationships outside of his marriage can be part of his campaign finance trial. That was a ruling by a federal judge today. But a number of legal motions by both sides are still pending. Joining me as San Diego Union Tribune columnist and Michael Smollins who was in federal court today. And Michael, thank you for joining us. Speaker 2: 00:21 Thanks for having me on marine. Speaker 1: 00:22 So why did Judge Thomas Whelan say he decided the evidence about extra marital affairs was relevant to this case? Speaker 2: 00:30 Well, the, the, the crux of the case is whether, uh, congressman hunter used, uh, campaign funds for non campaign purposes for personal spending. So his relationships with these people and what that money was spent on, uh, goes to the core of that. So that's why he, uh, said that that's, that's relevant and that needs to move forward. Speaker 1: 00:51 The court had a lot to consider today. I understand they did not actually consider it all. Walk us through those, some of the arguments that were made by both sides. Speaker 2: 01:00 Well, just to give the overview, I think they were like 31 motions and the judge dealt with about two dozen of them. Uh, the handful, he put a, a vet he didn't, uh, deal with, he put off to next Monday, primarily because the, the filings were too late. It was back after business on Friday. And he said he didn't get to some of the, uh, the paperwork until this morning. Um, w significantly you, some of the key, uh, motions were put off, uh, the change of venue, uh, which, uh, the defense, Duncan Hunter's attorneys are saying that he can't get a fair trial in San Diego. They wanted to move to the eastern district of California up north. Um, the other one which is kind of interesting, is the, a, this motion dealing with the, uh, speech or debate clause of the constitution does a lot of things, but essentially it boils down to that someone can't be prosecuted, arrested, convicted for a member of Congress that is for pursuing legislation. Speaker 2: 01:53 And that's what, uh, of course, uh, congressman Hunter's defense is that, that all this was related to his job campaign or jobs in Congress. Uh, they did do something. They, they, they, the judge did agree with some limits on character evidence, uh, on behalf of hunter that, that, uh, just in terms of specific good deeds that he did might not be allowed. Um, interestingly, he did sort of punt on whether a Margaret Hunter can testify in particularly how much, uh, information can be introduced into her control of the finances. Uh, the prosecution wanted to limit, if not exclude that, and the judge said that that's going to be determined at trial, uh, depending on where things go. So there were some things left up in the air, uh, regarding, uh, the future of this case. Speaker 1: 02:44 Now the prosecution has argued that Dunkin Hunter's wife Margaret, who did reach and plead deal with prosecutors should be allowed to testify against him. And I think the defense had a problem with that, that it goes against the idea that married people can't be forced to testify against each other. But that was cleared out, wasn't it? I mean basically she will be able to be called as a witness. Speaker 2: 03:04 Yeah. I mean it's, there was still a question as to whether that can happen, but the, the notion that, that the sort of, the spousal exemption, if you will, I'm not sure if that's the proper terminology, was not granted because part of this situation here is that, that that apparently doesn't apply when you're talking about co-conspirators, which is what the prosecution say. The hunters work Speaker 1: 03:28 was congressman hunter in court today. Speaker 2: 03:30 He was as well as his father, the a, the former congressman. And, uh, as has been the case, it was the father of that, that spoke to the media afterwards, while, uh, uh, the congressman, his son, uh, basically left the courthouse without saying much. I couldn't quite tell because it was quite a gaggle following him to his car. But yes, uh, the congressman was in court. Speaker 1: 03:50 So in the past, uh, congressman hunter and his side have called this prosecution a witch hunt and said it's a political prosecution. Does that kind of rhetoric continue from the hunter camp? Speaker 2: 04:03 It very much so. In fact, the father still was pressing the bullet political bias notion of the prosecutors who had attended a Hillary Clinton fundraiser claiming that, that biased them for a variety of reasons against, uh, the congressman. One interesting thing is that the, it appeared that there was a motion by the prosecution that to restrict what the congressman could say in terms of political bias and I assumed the winch and so forth. And the judge basically said, you know, he's not going to do that. That, that, you know, basically it's a freedom of speech issue. Uh, so we will continue here. I'm sure a lot about that as the, uh, uh, litigation unfold. Speaker 1: 04:45 And how is the litigation going to unfold? Apparently we have another hearing scheduled for next week. Is it on these motions? Speaker 2: 04:53 That's right. Those handful of motions. Like I said, there are some of the big ones. You know, there's been a lot of focus on the change of venue, which most, uh, legal experts think a is the longest of long shots. They've noted some other, you know, more heinous situations where there was a lot of pretrial publicity. And that's just not something that they do in federal court. Again, the key motions to dismiss the case outright, uh, were, were put off until Monday. So there's still that, again, legal experts don't think that, uh, they'd be surprised, I think if Judge Whelan just dismissed the case outright. But, uh, there is still that potential, I guess, because of the hearing on Monday. Should things proceed then that's a trial is scheduled for, for September. Speaker 1: 05:34 I've been speaking with San Diego Union Tribune columnists. Michael Smolan is from the Union Tribune newsroom. Michael, thank you. Speaker 2: 05:41 Thank you. Maureen. Speaker 3: 05:45 [inaudible].