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This is the craziest mess, :eek:  involving former Virginia governor McDonnell, an affable fellow who lived here in Northern VA before he was elected Governor.

Virginia Politics 

Defense attorney: McDonnell marriage had 'broken down'

A manicurist and a model are just two of the witnesses that may be called to testify in the federal corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, which commenced on Monday. The Washington Post's Matt Zapotosky reports from Richmond on some of the standout witnesses on the list released by prosecutors and defense attorneys. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

By Matt Zapotosky, Rosalind S. Helderman and Laura Vozzella July 29 at 9:30 PM

RICHMOND — Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife on Tuesday unveiled an unorthodox defense to the federal corruption charges against them: Maureen McDonnell had a "crush" on the charismatic executive who lavished gifts and cash on the couple.

Maureen McDonnell's intense — even romantic — interest in Jonnie R. Williams Sr. helps explain why she let him pay for expensive shopping trips and vacations for her and her family while she promoted a nutritional supplement he was trying to sell, defense attorneys said during opening statements. She was not hatching a scheme with her husband to get rich by abusing the prestige of the governor's office; rather, she was a woman in a broken marriage who craved attention.

"Jonnie Williams was larger than life to Maureen McDonnell," said William Burck, Maureen McDonnell's lead defense attorney. "But unlike the other man in her life, Jonnie Williams paid attention to Maureen McDonnell."

And the governor, his defense attorneys said, was an honest public servant who promised Williams nothing of consequence. They said he would take the witness stand to proclaim his innocence even if that required him to lay bare his family's troubles and discuss his wife's dealings with another man.

"Bob McDonnell is an innocent man," said John Brownlee, one of his lead defense attorneys. He said that his client had intended only to promote a Virginia company and that the great lengths prosecutors had gone to prove otherwise — including flying to California to interview former presidential candidate Mitt Romney — had been unsuccessful.

"Bob McDonnell eats Virginia ham. He drinks Virginia wine. And my guess is, if the man smoked, he'd smoke Virginia cigarettes," Brownlee said.

The salacious assertions about the marriage on the trial's first day of testimony previewed what is shaping up to be a deeply personal and emotional affair.

Later in the day, Cailin McDonnell Young, one of the McDonnells' daughters, cried softly on the witness stand as a prosecutor showed photos from the young woman's wedding. The prosecutor had highlighted various items and wedding services that others had paid for — including a catering bill eventually footed by Williams, engraved silver picture frames for guests that Young said were donated by state Del. David I. Ramadan (R-Loudoun), wedding rings, and a dress worth more than $1,000 that Young said she put only $43 toward.

Young said that, in retrospect, she regretted having accepted the items and wished that she and her husband had themselves paid for a "small, backyard" affair, as she insisted the two had always planned. "Our wedding now has this black cloud over it. . . . You can't look back at it with a happy memory," she said.

The catering bill was among the first gifts from Williams to the McDonnell family that are part of the corruption case. Young testified that Williams offered to pay for her reception after meeting her just once, for 10 to 15 minutes, after she ran into the businessman and his wife having dinner with her parents at the governor's mansion. After receiving the gift, she said, she added the businessman to the guest list for the event.

In January, Robert and Maureen McDonnell were charged in a 14-count indictment with lending the prestige of the governor's office to Williams and Star Scientific, a company he once ran, in return for more than $150,000 in cash, loans, vacations, golf outings and luxury goods.

Laying out prosecutors' case against the couple, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber said Robert McDonnell afforded Williams — whom she described as a "vitamin salesman" — unusual and official privileges in exchange for his largesse.

Aber said McDonnell requested that a high-ranking health official meet with Williams on "less than 12 hours notice" and allowed Williams to invite doctors to a mansion event. She showed jurors a photo — which had been e-mailed by Maureen McDonnell — showing the governor tan and smiling behind the wheel of Williams's Ferrari, its top down and the wind mussing his hair.

Defense attorneys launched a vigorous and creative counterattack. They said that prosecutors must prove the McDonnells conspired together with Williams and that, because of the state of the couple's marriage, such a conspiracy was impossible.

Burck said a former staff member had referred to Williams as Maureen McDonnell's "favorite playmate," and the defense attorney said some might view the relationship as "inappropriate." He noted the pair exchanged 1,200 texts and phone calls during the period covered by the indictment.
The McDonnells, by contrast, were "barely on speaking terms," he said.

Brownlee, Robert McDonnell's defense attorney, said Maureen McDonnell told her husband that she "hated him" and complained in particular of not having enough money. He said Robert McDonnell would read aloud to jurors an intimate e-mail in which he appealed to his wife to "help save the marriage." But he said the plea "fell upon blind eyes and deaf ears" because the night it was received, Maureen McDonnell was "distracted with other interests."

The couple's problems "created a rift so wide that an outsider — in this case, another man — could invade and poison the marriage," Brownlee said.

To be sure, defense attorneys have not asserted that Maureen McDonnell and Williams had a fully romantic or sexual relationship.

Burck said his client was suffering "collateral damage" from prosecutors' pursuit of her husband; Brownlee, the former governor's attorney, said both McDonnells — as well as the federal authorities who are prosecuting them — were victims of Williams, "the master manipulator."
Attorneys for both the former governor and his wife aggressively attacked Williams's credibility, saying that the account he provided to law enforcement officials had shifted several times and that he was testifying only because he was given immunity from prosecution. They said that investigators were probing a $10 million stock fraud in which Williams may have played a role and that he was lying about the McDonnells to avoid charges.

Aber, the prosecutor, acknowledged that Williams had lied at first to investigators — by asserting that he was a personal friend of the McDonnells' and that his gifts came with no strings attached. But she said Williams was now telling the truth in exchange for immunity. She disputed the idea of some personal connection between Williams and Maureen McDonnell.

"This was always just a business relationship," Aber said, "nothing more."

She told the jurors that they would hear directly from Williams. "Mr. Williams is going to tell you that what he and the McDonnells were doing was wrong and that's why he tried to hide it," Aber said.

The defense case, as outlined Tuesday, contains other elements. Burck told jurors that Maureen McDonnell genuinely believed in Williams's product, and in "nutraceuticals" generally, in part because of a breast cancer scare she had as a teenager. He also told jurors about Mary-Shea Sutherland, Maureen McDonnell's former chief of staff, who he noted accepted gifts from Williams, helped Williams arrange a mansion event, and remains uncharged. He stressed that Maureen McDonnell, unlike Sutherland, was not a public official and could not be held accountable as such.

The attorneys questioned three prosecution witnesses Tuesday, and the judge told jurors to return at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to continue hearing testimony from Williams's longtime assistant.

Questioned on his way out of the courthouse about the harrowing day, Robert McDonnell said: "I love my children very much. I'm sorry they're having to go through this."

laura.vozzella@washpost.com
Justin Jouvenal contributed to this report.

Matt Zapotosky covers the federal district courthouse in Alexandria, where he tries to break news from a windowless office in which he is not allowed to bring his cell phone.
Laura Vozzella covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post.

  Give them both a fair trial and take every thing they got and put them in prison just like Duke Cunningham.     :mask: :mask:  :yeah:  and say goodby.  :hellur:  :zoners:

Quote from: The Troll on July 31, 2014, 08:05:04 AM

  Give them both a fair trial and take every thing they got and put them in prison just like Duke Cunningham.     :mask: :mask:  :yeah:  and say goodby.  :hellur:  :zoners:

That might just happen!  It is all over the news here, on TV and in the Washington Post. Don't know about the other media. The irony is that he was considered a good governor -- by democrats as well as his own party. The following is from yesterday's WP. Haven't read today's update yet:

Updates: Day four of the McDonnell corruption trial

Former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, are battling a 14-count public corruption indictment that alleges they lent the prestige of the governor's office to a Richmond-area businessman, and in exchange, the businessman lavished them with gifts and money. Jurors on Thursday were hearing testimony from witnesses for the prosecution during a trial in federal court in Richmond....

Maureen offered access for plane ride, Williams says

​In June of 2011, Jonnie Williams said he got a call from Maureen McDonnell. The first lady of Virginia wanted him to attend the governor's annual political retreat at the Homestead Resort in Bath County.

"Maureen contacted me and said, 'you need to come to this event. You'll get to spend some time and play golf with the governor," he testified at the federal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell.

But her offer came with a catch: She wanted him to fly his private plane and bring some of the adult McDonnell children to the event. Her first proposal: His plane should pick up some of the children in Richmond, fly to Virginia Beach to pick up another McDonnell in Virginia Beach and then fly on to the Homestead.

He testified he agreed only to fly from Richmond: "It's difficult in a jet to do short hops like that," he said.

On arriving at the hotel, he said he was greeted in the lobby by Maureen McDonnell and Adam Zubowksy, an aide to the governor. He ended up playing golf with the governor for four hours on that trip.

"I can't tell you exactly specifically," he said, when asked if he had talked up Star Scientific on the links. But, he added, "This is something that's important to me. I'm generally trying to move it forward whenever I can." (A sentiment jurors are likely to believe, given that he has at time appeared to be talking up the product even now, on the stand.)

Rosalind S. Helderman

Before the gifts, a long talk on Williams's private plane

According to dietary supplement executive Jonnie Williams, he told Robert F. McDonnell right from the start what he wanted from the governor and the commonwealth.

He says he lent McDonnell his plane to fly to a campaign event in California for Meg Whitman in October 2010, then flew commercial to the state so he could link up with the plane and accompany McDonnell home to Virginia. On the five- to six-hour return flight, he described to the governor the studies he hoped to initiate of his dietary supplement Anatabloc.

October 2010 was before Williams had given nearly any of the gifts and loans he eventually showered on McDonnell and his family.

Repeatedly, U.S. Attorney Michael Dry has asked Williams: Had you ever discussed the studies you were seeking from the state of Virginia with the governor? Yes, Williams responded. On the plane. "I was on the plane with him for five or six hours," he testified.

What about the idea of getting the Tobacco Commission to pay for those studies? What was the first time Williams discussed that with Williams? "As I was discussing it with the governor on the flight, he thought it was a good idea to get independent funding for this and he thought the Tobacco Commission was a good idea," Williams said.

He testified that he later hired former attorney general Jerry Kilgore, whose brother is the chairman of the commission, to help lobby for the funding. But he said the idea for the funding predated Kilgore's involvement. "He thought it was a good idea," Williams said of McDonnell.

Rosalind S. Helderman

conference in Florida in June 2011.
Her statements came just days before the wedding of her daughter Cailin. Williams paid the $15,000 catering bill for the wedding. He also paid for Maureen McDonnell and her chief of staff, Mary-Shea Sutherland, to stay at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota the night before her statement.

Laura Vozzella

Williams told Maureen McDonnell to sell her stock

When Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. learned the governor's wife had purchased stock in his dietary supplement company, his reaction was not one of pleasure, the businessman testified Wednesday. Williams said that he told Maureen McDonnell she should instead sell her shares so she could cover personal debts.

"I said, 'Maureen, this is a risky investment doing things like this,'" Williams testified. "I thought I loaned you that money to pay your bills.
"
The exchange came soon after a June 2011 event in Florida at which Maureen McDonnell talked favorably about Williams's company and a new supplement he was trying to promote. It was also not long after Williams had agreed to loan the governor's wife $50,000 upon hearing about her mounting credit card bills and struggling real estate investments.

Williams said he first learned the governor's wife wife had purchased stock in his company, Star Scientific, when she asked him why the stock was down. He said he told her biotech companies' stock typically gyrates and inquired as to why she was curious. She said she had bought some shares, Williams testified.​

Despite him telling her to sell her shares, Williams said he was unsure if she actually did.
Matthew Zapotoski

Day four: Everything you need to know

On day three of the corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen, we got to the heart of the accusations against the couple as businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. took the stand.

Williams is the linchpin in prosecutor's case that McDonnell's accepted lavish gifts in exchange for promoting his dietary supplement business, Star Scientific. From his testimony Wednesday:
For $65,000, he testified, Maureen McDonnell said she would help his company, with her husband's blessing.

"She said to me, 'I have a background in nutritional supplements, and I can be helpful to you with this project with your company," Jonnie R. Williams Sr. testified, describing a private meeting with Maureen McDonnell in the governor's mansion in May 2011. " 'The governor says it's okay for me to help you, but I need you to help me with this financial situation.' "

He will resume his testimony Thursday and is expected to flesh out details of the many lavish gifts the McDonnells are accused of accepting. The defense is expected to attack the credibility of Williams, who cooperated with authorities in the face of a securities probe.

Earlier in the day, an aide to Williams detailed the vacations, plane rides and cash her boss showered on the McDonnells. She did not bolster the defense's suggestion that there was a romantic relationship between Maureen McDonnell and Williams, saying she did not know how close they were and that a trip they took together was business related.

Bobby McDonnell, the former governor's son, testified about his own relationship with Williams. The businessman was a "mentor," he said, who gave him a set of golf clubs and offered him an internship. He also recalled the infamous Rolex that Williams bought for Maureen to give Gov. McDonnell, saying he thought the watch was a fake and that his father's reaction was cool – "another watch?"

Rachel Weiner
Is Jonnie Williams testifying too soon?

​The trial of Robert F. and Maureen McDonnell resumes at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, when prosecutors' star witness, Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., will return to the witness stand to continue describing how he lavished the McDonnells with cash and gifts so they would lend the credibility of the governor's office to his dietary supplement company. He was first called to testify for about an hour Wednesday — the third day in proceedings that are expected to stretch for about five weeks.

But was that too soon to put such a key and controversial witness on the stand?

Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor now at the Shulman Rogers firm, said in an e-mail that he was "surprised" prosecutors had put Williams on the stand so quickly. He said he would have predicted Williams would begin his testimony Friday because "as a prosecutor you want the jury to go into the first weekend with the testimony of your key witness not yet complete or just completed, with the defense not yet having had a chance to start cross-examination."

He said it would be a "major tactical blunder for the prosecution if the trial recesses for the weekend with cross-examination having started, because whatever bump the prosecution gets from the direct examination will immediately get pummeled on cross.​"

Indeed, defense attorneys have already attacked Williams's credibility vigorously, referring to him as a "master manipulator," and noting he was given immunity for his testimony — possibly saving himself from charges in a $10 million stock fraud case. How Williams responds to their questions on the witness stand will be a pivotal moment in the case​.

It remains unclear, though, exactly how long Williams will be on the stand, and when defense attorneys will get their crack at him. Jerri Fulkerson, Williams's longtime personal assistant, testified herself about the case for several hours — starting late Tuesday and taking up all the time before lunch on Wednesday. Her boss, surely, will be on the witness stand for much longer.
Matthew Zapotosky

www.washingtonpost.com

  He and his wife should be in Hollywood.  They are good actors.  Being the perfect couple, he being a good a good man and Governor, smiling why they have their hand in the forbidden cookie jar.   :yes:

  Duke Cunningham a great fighter jet ace couldn't keep his hand out of the cookie jar and went to prison broke, they need some of the same treatment.   :yes:  But there is always someone else to take their place and the troft.   :hogslop: