Congressman's expense report shows $1,300 in video game purchases after son accidentally uses card

A costly mistake.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Hundreds of dollars in video game purchases tends to raise eyebrows when the charges appear on a congressman's campaign expense report. For Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the mixup occurred because he says his son mistakenly used his campaign credit card to make a payment to an online video game distribution company, The Hill reports. The expense report subsequently logged $1,300 in video game purchases.

The Federal Election Commission naturally sent a letter to Hunter, asking why exactly video game payments were showing up on the report. In Hunter's 2015 report, the purchases show up as "person expense — to be paid back." Apparently after purchasing a single game on Oct. 13, dozens of subsequent charges were made to the company, Steam Games, over the next two months; Hunter says these charges were unauthorized.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.