Duncan Hunter alleged that the $ 1,302 he spent on video games was his son’s business.

Former Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, convicted of spending campaign funds on personal purchases, has been spared his sentence thanks to the presidential pardon granted by Donald Trump this week to 15 people, according to NPR. And Hunter’s crime was a fairly frequent one in his profession, although this time related to video games. As we informed you in 2016, this politician spent $ 1,302 of his party’s funds on Steam games.

A most unusual embezzlement case, where Hunter alleged that his son had taken his credit card without his knowledge to buy PC games. However, the subsequent investigation showed that the former congressman had spent up to $ 250,000 of his party funds on luxury hotels, personal purchases, toys and gifts, travel, basic products and food for his pets, among other things.

Something that caused him to be found guilty of a crime of embezzlement in 2019, forced to pay a fine of up to $ 250,000 and serve up to 5 years in prison. This before receiving the presidential pardon, of course. While the $ 1,302 spent on Steam games remains anecdotal, the truth is that Duncan Hunter was a congressman known for his pro-video game stance, among other things, something that is not very common in American politics.

In fact, the former congressman carried out campaigns in defence of video games during his political career, in the face of that traditionalist vision that accuses them of being catalysts of violence: “The problem with these thoughts is that they create the image that young people from America is unable to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, which is simply wrong, “Hunter commented in 2013 for Politico, about the controversy around violent games.

Of course, his 2016 statements that the charges he was charged with ” were my son’s mistake ” fall on deaf ears in light of the other $ 248,000 spent on purchases outside of Steam, but after the reprieve granted by Trump, Hunter is cleared of the charges.