The US House Committee on Ethics [official website] announced [statement, PDF] Thursday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] has opened a criminal investigation into Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) [official profile] for potentially unlawful campaign spending [financials, 2016]. According to an earlier report [text, PDF] by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) [official website], Hunter allegedly may have “converted tens of thousands of dollars of campaign funds from his congressional campaign committee to personal use to pay for family travel, flights, utilities, health care, school uniforms and tuition, jewelry, groceries,and other goods,services, and expenses.” The use of campaign funding for personal expenses is a violation of House rules [text], standards of conduct [text, PDF], and federal law [§ 30114, PDF].

In August, the Committee on Ethics received a referral from the OCE regarding Congressman Hunter suspicious campaign spending. According to the report from OCE there is strong indication that Congressman Hunter “converted campaign funds to personal use to pay expenses that were not legitimate and verifiable campaign expenditures attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes.” In December the Committee decided to extend the review of the matter.