Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were indicted today by a federal grand jury on 14 counts stemming from the first couple’s acceptance and solicitation of thousands in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman during McDonnell’s term.
Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were indicted today by a federal grand jury on 14 counts stemming from the first couple’s acceptance and solicitation of thousands in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman during McDonnell’s term.
The indictment, spelled out in an extensive document filed by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District, paints a detailed portrait of how the governor and his wife accepted more than $135,000 in direct payments as gifts and loans from then-Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams Sr., in addition to golf outings and other things of value, in exchange for the first couple's assistance in promoting his struggling Henrico-based company’s dietary supplement, Anatabloc.
It also asserts that the McDonnells lied on loan applications and forms requiring them to declare debts and then tried to cover their tracks.
Taken together, the charges, if they resulted in convictions and maximum sentences, could produce fines in excess of $1 million and put the McDonnells behind bars for decades.
The indictment caps a stunning fall from political grace for the former governor, whose term ended Jan. 11. His tenure produced budget surpluses, restoration of voting rights to a record number of former felons and a landmark transportation funding package, before it was consumed by scandal in his final nine months in office.
McDonnell has maintained that he did nothing improper to assist Williams or his company and provided no special treatment, though he has apologized on several occasions. Last summer he announced he and his family had returned the gifts and loans Williams extended to them.
“I am deeply sorry for the problems and the pain that I’ve caused for you during this past year,” McDonnell said during his final gubernatorial address to the General Assembly on Jan. 8.
McDonnell was on the short list as a potential running mate for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012 and mentioned as a possible contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
Things began to unravel publicly in March 2013, when Todd Schneider, the former chef at the Executive Mansion, was indicted on felony embezzlement charges alleging the theft of food from the Executive Mansion.
Schneider, who later pleaded no contest to a reduced charge, had first been approached by investigators in early 2012. He opened the door to the McDonnell investigation when he told federal and state investigators of the first family’s relationship with Williams, who had provided a $15,000 check to cover catering expenses at the August, 2011 Executive Mansion wedding of the McDonnells’ daughter, Cailin.
That transaction, and subsequent evidence of lavish gifts, trips, shopping sprees and $120,000 in loans to the first family between May 2011 and 2012, led to a state investigation of his disclosure forms and a wider federal probe of the relationship between Williams, his company and the McDonnells.
The indictment asserts that the governor and the first lady violated federal law by using their positions to assist Williams, who sought an endorsement of Anatabloc and to have it incorporated into the formulary of covered medications under the state employee health plan.
In June, 2011, Maureen McDonnell traveled with Williams to Florida to help promote Anatabloc at a conference -- just days after Williams provided the $15,000 catering check and a $50,000 check to the first lady -- allegedly to help pay off mortgage debt
accumulating on the millions in souring real estate investments the couple and relatives owned.
Then in August, 2011, Maureen McDonnell hosted a luncheon at the Executive Mansion to help launch Anatabloc – a supplement derived from the alkaloid anatabine found in tobacco plants that the company bills as an anti-inflammatory.
At the luncheon, Star Scientific handed out $25,000 grants to Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia – grants that prosecutors allege were designed to set up the future funding of university research of Anatabloc with money provided by the state’s tobacco commission.
The first couple also arranged meetings between Williams, company employees and state officials. In one executive level meeting with the state human resources director, McDonnell allegedly brandished a bottle of the supplement and said it worked for him.
Described at one time as a “family friend” of the McDonnells, Williams, whose company was under a securities investigation, began cooperating with federal officials last spring as their investigation into the first couple mushroomed.
Williams has told federal investigators that he believed the governor would return his favor of gifts and loans by helping his company get state funding and research grants from groups like the state tobacco commission – charges McDonnell’s legal team vehemently denied.
The fact that this did not happen, however, does not necessarily mean that it cannot be charged as a crime. Prosecutors only need to demonstrate that the governor or first lady intended to provide assistance in exchange for the personal gifts and cash received.
And the gifts were extensive.
Among them:
More than $100,000 in campaign contributions, mostly in-kind donations of flights on Williams’ private jet
$15,000 shopping spree to New York City for Maureeen McDonnell in spring 2011
A trip to the Final Four in Houston to see VCU play in April 2011
$50,000 to Maureen McDonnell in May, 2011, $30,000 of which first lady used to purchase Star stock
$15,000 to cover catering expenses at the June, 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell
A 2011 summertime stay at Williams’ Smith Mountain Lake vacation home
$7,500 worth in golf outings for the McDonnell’s sons and members of his staff between May and September, 2011
A $6,500 Rolex watch with the inscription “71st Governor of Virginia”, which Maureen McDonnell gave to her husband for Christmas in 2011
$70,000 to MoBo Real Estate partners – a real estate partnership between the governor and his sister, in 2012
A $10,000 wedding present to another McDonnell daughter in December 2012
Virginia's law is considered one of the most lax in the country regarding gifts to elected officials. There is no limit on the amount of a gift an official may accept, but officials must report any gift over $50 in value on annual statements of economic interest.
Still undetermined is the status of the state investigation into whether McDonnell deliberately omitted or falsified on his statements of economic interest gifts or money received.
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring is conducting that investigation due to a conflict of interest the case presented for former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who also received gifts from Williams.
Cuccinelli also had to recuse his office from the investigation into the chef, given that Cuccinelli's office could have been forced to cross-examine witnesses it technically represents. The conflicts led to the appointment of special counsel for McDonnell, his executive staff and state employees in the chef's case and to handle "any related matters."
At last count those legal fees exceeded $780,000 in taxpayer money. Newly installed Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring last week terminated the special counsel agreements.
One of the first acts of Democratic Governor Terry Mcauliffe was to limit the value of gifts for officials and their families to $100 or less. Terry and his family were happy with the Virginia is for Lovers hats they received for gifts when he was sworn in.
Cuccinelli is still treding water but check here for first info if his indictment drops.
6 Reasons McDonnell was a Disaster for Virginia
Over his tenure as a state Delegate, Virginia Attorney General, and Governor, he amassed a shockingly right-wing record.
1. He and his family took tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from a supporter — and helped his controversial business. In what Republican state legislator Bob Marshall called the “type of activity” that “undermines public confidence,” McDonnell and his family reportedly accepted $145,000 in gifts and/or loans from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the CEO of Star Scientific Inc. The McDonnells then helped promote the scientifically-unproven dietary supplements line made by the controversial tobacco company-turned-supplements manufacturer. While Virginia’s lax gifts law allows elected officials to accept unlimited gifts — even from lobbyists and those with business before the state — McDonnell may still have broken the law by not fully disclosing what he and his wife received. A possible federal indictment was reportedly put on hold until after McDonnell elft office. This was not McDonnell’s first time under ethical fire: in 2005, he exploited a loophole to evade disclosure requirements, hiding corporate contributors to his attorney general campaign.
2. He consistently opposed LGBT equality. As a legislator, McDonnell launched a crusade against LGBT rights. In 2004, he authored a resolution calling on Congress to pass a federal marriage inequality amendment. A year later, he helped to write the state’s constitutional amendment which bans same-sex marriages, unions, and partnerships. He even voted against a proposal in 2000 that would have changed Virginia’s unconstitutional law banning consensual sodomy between two adults from a felony to a misdemeanor and used that antiquated ban to oust a state judge he believed might be a lesbian. Among his first acts as governor was rescinding protections for gay and lesbian state employees via executive order (though he later issued a less potent “executive directive” telling his appointees not to actually discriminate). McDonnell said that this decision was made because LGBT Virginians don’t face widespread discrimination. He has opposed adoption rights for same-sex couples and signed bill allowing child-placing agencies and clubs on public college and university campuses to discriminate based on sexual orientation if their “conscience” so dictates.
3. He worked tirelessly to block women’s reproductive rights. As a graduate student at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network University (now Regent), McDonnell wrote a thesis laying out a far-right agenda for the Republican Party that included significant restrictions on women’s reproductive health. He brought that agenda to the House of Delegates, where he voted for numerous abortion restrictions and actually voted against a bill to clarify that “abortion” was not defined to include “contraception.” As governor, he has backed a radical “personhood for fetuses” bill and signed TRAP restrictions aimed at closing abortion clinics and an unfunded mandate requiring women to receive a medically unnecessary ultrasound before having an abortion.
4. He dismissed climate science and pushed for more fossil-fuel use. Falsely claiming that the science showing that climate change is real and caused by humans is “mixed,” McDonnell eliminated his predecessor’s state climate change panel. He strongly supported the coal industry (for whom his wife worked as a consultant) and touted off-shore oil drilling at a BP-funded conference in Texas. He amended a 2010 bill to weaken state air pollution regulations.. And last year, he pushed for and signed a transportation bill that lowered the gasoline tax and shifted highway costs to bikers, pedestrians, and people with hybrid vehicles.
In 2009, Virginia was rated the nation’s best state in which to do business. But thanks in no small part to his backwards moving policies as governor, Virginia has dropped significantly and, in 2013, tied for fifth-best.
Once again the republicans show they are no friend to the average hard working citizen. The GOP lives in the pocket of the rich and big business and just like Bob McDonnell they think they will never be caught.
Thanks to Democrats Virginia is in good hands again.
Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
ACVDN
No comments:
Post a Comment