Congressman Accused of Spending Over a Thousand Dollars of Campaign Funds on Video Games

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., previously pleaded guilty on Tuesday to misusing campaign funds. Among some of the ways he chose to spend said money was on movie tickets, golfing, and fast food. But perhaps one of the most egregious uses of his campaign spending was on video games, whether of his own volition or, as he attested, through his children.

Hunter admitted to stealing "hundreds of thousands of dollars," some of which were spent on $1,302 worth of video games on the video game distribution platform Steam.

Accusations were made toward Hunter in 2016 when it was first reported that this amount of money had gone toward purchasing new games. He claimed instead that it was his son who had used his campaign credit card to purchase a single game via the Steam platform, and that he had not indeed authorized any further transactions.

Given Hunter's interest in video games, as he went so far as to pen an opinion piece in Politico, it seems probable that he certainly could have had a hand in racking up the Steam costs. The median price of a video game on Steam is around $5.99, but games can go much further than that. Many new releases clock in at around $60, and at the top end of that estimate, Hunter could have purchased 21 different triple-A video game releases with the funds recorded as utilized.

It's unclear what games were purchased, or if it was ever uncovered if Hunter's son indeed bought the games or not. It doesn't matter at this point, with a guilty plea entered in court.

Hunter and his wife Margaret allegedly funneled $250,000 worth in total of his campaign funds to their personal spending habits. Margaret pleaded guilty to the charges against her, but Hunter is hoping she can avoid jail time, citing a need for "a mom in the home" for his kids.

Both Hunter and his wife are expected to serve jail time if convicted.