A prominent congressman is pointing to a saga involving his pet rabbit as evidence of the poor judgment of the ethics office that Republicans briefly planned this week to disempower.
Duncan Hunter, whose conduct is being scrutinized by the House Ethics committee, will be faulted in an upcoming report for billing the flying of his children’s pet rabbit on a plane and billing the charges to his campaign account, Hunter’s spokesman told The Associated Press. That charge will be highlighted by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which House Republicans this week quietly tried to kill before President-elect Donald Trump told them to refocus their efforts.
“(The office) has in their report $600 in campaign expenditures for in cabin rabbit transport fees,” Hunter’s spokesman, Joe Kasper, told the AP. “Since travel is often done on (airline) miles — which is entirely permissible — the credit card connected to the account was charged several times even when his children were flying.”
Hunter did not respond to a request for additional comment Wednesday. But he told the AP that it was “an obvious example of a mistake being made but (the office) wants to view it through a lens of possible intent. The same goes for many other expenditures.”
Hunter’s father ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.