U. S. Representive Duncan Hunter (CA. – San Diego County) is asking for a change in venue for his trial, involving alleged misuse of campaign funds, at least in part due to Steve Breen‘s political cartoons for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
In another motion filed Monday, Hunter’s defense asked that the upcoming trial be moved out of San Diego. Hunter’s attorneys took an unusual tack, explicitly arguing that their client should be tried in a place where more voters cast ballots for President Donald Trump in 2016.
“As President Trump’s first and most arduous supporter, it is hard not to see how a juror would be predisposed to cast their vote based on their politics,” Hunter’s lawyers wrote. “Hillary Clinton beat Donald J. Trump in San Diego County by 56.1% to 38.2%.”
The defense says moving the case to sites in the sprawling and more rural Eastern District of California for trial would ensure that “Hunter would get an impartial jury pool of his peers.”
As for cartoonist Steve Breen’s involvement:
Some defendants seeking a change of venue commission polls to demonstrate deep-seated revulsion for their client.
The defense’s relatively brief motion instead noted that a Google search about the investigation into Hunter returns 7.5 million results, that the San Diego Union-Tribune has repeatedly editorialized against Hunter and that protesters have hounded Hunter during previous court appearances in the city.
Hunter’s lawyers even attached a Union-Tribune newspaper cartoon depicting Hunter opening a gift from his wife containing an orange prison jumpsuit. (Emphasis added.)
The motion linked in the above quote includes Breen’s orange jumpsuit cartoon above.
Duncan Hunter, being the local U. S. politician, is a logical target of editorial cartoonist Breen.
hat tip: Matt Wuerker