Rep. Duncan Hunter may be under indictment for misuses of campaign funds, but that hasn't stopped high-dollar donors from coming to his rescue, most from the defense industry.
High-Dollar Donors Finance Rep. Duncan Hunter's Defense
Credit: Screen shot
February 23, 2019

For some donors, Duncan Hunter's misuse of campaign donations is no big deal. In fact, it's more of a feature than a bug, because now they can give lots more money to his legal defense fund, thereby ensuring his undying loyalty forever and ever, amen.

Via The San Diego Union-Tribune:

Donors connected to the family-owned shipbuilding company Edison Chouest Offshore - who have been among Hunter’s top campaign supporters for years - contributed almost half of the fund’s total revenue in 2018, according to fund and Federal Election Commission records.

In the last quarter of the year, the fund received contributions of $5,000 from five donors, including Linden Blue, vice chairman of the military contractor General Atomics; Tyler A. Lowrey, a member of the board of directors for Litel Instruments, a technology company founded by Hunter’s uncle, Robert O. Hunter, Jr., who chairs its board of directors; and Gene W. Ray, co-founder and former chief executive officer of the multibillion-dollar defense contractor Titan Corporation.

Lowrey and another donor, real estate developer Forrest W. Brehm, contributed $5,000 to the fund after they had already given the maximum $2,700 to Hunter’s campaign for the 2018 general election, according to FEC records.

Ray was Titan’s CEO when the company agreed in 2005 to pay $28.5 million to settle criminal and civil charges stemming from allegations that it bribed the president of the West African nation of Benin in an attempt to get business, according to news coverage at the time.

Ray now serves as managing director of GMT Ventures, a consulting company for technology and defense companies in the early stages of development. He also serves in advisory roles for numerous companies.

Sweet! Get indicted, rake in the bucks from the defense industry for your defense. Great work if you can get it.

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