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sandiegouniontribune.com F R I D AY • J U N E 14 , 2 019

MARGARET HUNTER PLEADS

GUILTY IN CAMPAIGN CASE
Congressman’s wife admits she used thousands of dollars in donations for personal expenses
BY MORGAN COOK
& JEFF MCDONALD
Years of cavalier spend-
ing of her husband’s politi-
cal contributions culmi-
nated in a guilty plea Thurs-
day for Margaret Hunter,
the wife of Rep. Duncan
NELVIN C. CEPEDA U-T Hunter, R-Alpine, who was
Margaret Hunter and her attorney, Thomas McNa- co-indicted last year in a
mara, leave San Diego federal court Thursday. sweeping campaign-finance
investigation.
During a change-of-plea
hearing in the federal court-
house in San Diego, Mar-
garet Hunter formally ad-
mitted that she illegally
used thousands of dollars in
campaign donations for her
personal expenses.
Margaret Hunter, 44,
pleaded guilty to a single
count of conspiracy. She
U-T WA T C H D O G
faces up to five years in fed-
eral custody and a $250,000
fine when she is sentenced
Sept. 16. She also could re-
ceive up to three years of su-
pervised probation follow-
ing her release from prison.
When asked if she under-
stood and agreed with the
plea, she said, “Yes, sir.”
The admission to a single
criminal count represents a
huge disparity from the doz-
ens of counts she and her
husband initially con-
fronted. The remaining
counts would be dismissed
at the time of sentencing.
The 22-page agreement
makes clear that Margaret
SEE WATCHDOG • A6

JUDGE IN
SEAL CASE
OUTLINES
TRACKING
OF EMAILS
Prosecutors embedded
code to find out where
files in case were sent
BY ANDREW DYER

A plot hatched by agents at

the Naval Criminal Investiga-
tive Service to identify a report-
er’s source in a criminal case led
to a “crisis” in the public’s per-
ception of the military justice
system, a Navy judge said in a
ruling June 7.
The plan — to use a comput-
er code to track emails sent to
defense lawyers and a reporter
— led to the firing of a Navy pros-
ecutor, a lighter potential sen-
tence if the Navy SEAL on trial is
found guilty, and concerns
about privacy rights and free- EZRA SHAW GETTY IMAGES

RAPTURE
dom of the press. San Diego State alum Kawhi Leonard led the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA crown,
The trial of San Diego-based beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 114-110 on Thursday night to clinch
Navy SEAL Edward R. Galla- the best-of-seven series four games to two. It was the second time Leonard has won an
gher is set to begin Monday. NBA title and the second time he was named Finals MVP. See story, D1.
Gallagher is charged with
killing a wounded teenage ISIS
fighter brought to him for medi-

BORDER CRACKDOWN MOVES SOUTH

cal treatment in Iraq in 2017.
He’s also charged with shooting
two civilians and firing into
crowds with a sniper rifle. Galla-

MIGRANTS FIND THEMSELVES MEXICO RECRUITING IN BAJA

gher pleaded not guilty to all
charges.
The judge, Navy Capt. Aaron
Rugh, describes in his 21-page
ruling how Navy investigators
and prosecutors launched an
email tracking plan. He paints a
picture of investigators so eager
to track down a reporter’s
source, they ignored an assist-
ant U.S. attorney’s advice to get
a judge’s permission.
Rugh ruled the NCIS and the
prosecution had violated Galla-
gher’s rights and damaged per-
ceptions of his court-martial.
“The NCIS intrusion placed
an intolerable strain on the pub-
lic’s perception of the military
justice system,” Rugh wrote,
“because an objective, disinter-
ested observer, fully informed of
SEE RULING • A8
STRANDED FAR FROM U.S. FOR NEW NATIONAL GUARD
BY PATRICK J. MCDONNELL
TAPACHULA, Mexico
Long lines of migrants, mostly
Central Americans, line up daily
outside the Tapachula offices of the
refugee agencies of Mexico and the
United Nations.
Meanwhile, a polyglot throng in-
cluding people from Africa, Asia
and the Caribbean regularly gath-
ers at the local headquarters of the
National Institute of Immigration,
Mexico’s agency for migrant affairs.
Almost all those seeking help
have a common destination — the
United States — but they find them-
selvescaught in an expandingMexi-
can immigration crackdown
prompted by U.S. pressure and ma-
rooned in this sweltering city in
southern Mexico.
They cannot proceed north
without risking arrest, so they re-
main in Tapachula seeking docu-
mentation allowing legal travel to
the U.S.-Mexico border, more than
1,000 miles away. They say they are
fleeing poverty and violence in their
homelands.
Maribel Amador and her family
were among those gathered on a re-
cent afternoon outside the offices of
SEE BORDER • A10
BY WENDY FRY
In Baja California, recruitment
is under way from Tijuana to En-
senada for civilians to join Mexi-
co’s recently created National
Guard, military officials con-
firmed Wednesday.
Mexican military officials in
Baja California said the recruit-
ment operations have been on-
going since January when the
country’s president announced
the government would enlist
50,000 civilians nationwide to
serve.
The newly formed agency is
also a key component in a deal
struck between the United States
and Mexico after the Trump ad-
ministration threatened to im-
pose an escalating tax on all Mexi-
can imports unless the flow of mi-
grants reaching the U.S. border
wanes. Mexico responded by
promising to deploy 6,000 Na-
tional Guard troops to its south-
ern border.
Since then, Mexican leaders
have struggled to reassure their
citizens that they are not milita-
rizing their southern border.
“I want to underscore it be-
SEE GUARD • A10

U.S. BLAMES IRAN FOR 2 OIL TANKER EXPLOSIONS POLITICS

Blasts disabling ships curity and potential military

in Gulf of Oman raise
fear of wider conflict
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Explosions crippled two oil
tankers in the Gulf of Oman
on Thursday in what the
United States called “unpro-
voked attacks” by Iran, raising
alarms about immediate se-
conflict in a vital passageway
for a third of the world’s petro-
leum.
Iran called the accusations
part of a campaign of Ameri-
can disinformation and “war-
mongering.”
The explosions forced the
crews of both vessels to evacu-
ate and left at least one ablaze,
and hours later the causes were
still under investigation. Yet
the backdrop of steeply rising
threats between President
Donald Trump and Iranian
leaders gave the stricken ships
a grave significance even before
the facts became clear.
By afternoon, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said that
U.S. intelligence agencies had
concluded Tehran was behind
the disabling of both ships.
The most compelling evi-
dence to support Pompeo’s
claim was video footage re-
leased Thursday night by U.S.
Central Command. A military
spokesman, Capt. Bill Urban,
SANDERS TO STEP DOWN
said the video showed an Ira-
nian Revolutionary Guard pa-
White House press
secretary Sarah Sand-
trol boat pulling up alongside ers, among the long-
the Kokuka Courageous, one est-serving members
of the stricken ships, several
of the Trump adminis-
hours after the initial explo-
tration, will leave her
sion and removing an unex-
post at the end of the
ploded limpet mine.
Also Thursday night, the month, President
U.S. military released two Donald Trump
photographs of the ship’s hull, tweeted. See story, A5.
SEE TANKERS • A9

WEEKEND U-T INDEX

A TRIBUTE TO A TENOR Comics

Crossword
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B6
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E4
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D6
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“Pavarotti” director Ron Howard pays homage to
the tenor who brought opera to the mainstream. E1 Dear Abby F3 Letters B6 Stocks C3 Weather A11

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