Hunter is on trial for having spent campaign money for personal reasons, including not just affairs but vacations, clothes, and video games. Hunter carried on these affairs with three lobbyists, a staffer in his own office, and a Republican National Committee official. His lawyers are arguing that the money he spent in the course of having affairs with them should count as a 'legitimate political expenditure.' These women were 'professional contacts' for Hunter. The relationships, the lawyers argue, “often served an overtly political purpose,” so “Unlike intimacy, the fact that an individual’s relationship with Mr. Hunter includes a professional aspect that directly relates to his campaign or duties as a holder of Federal office, is directly relevant to whether Mr. Hunter could properly use campaign funds for an expense in connection with that individual.”
At www.alternet.org
