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When Gifts Turn to Greed: Former Va. Governor Indicted on 14 Counts
Earlier this week, Bob McDonnell, a former Virginia Governor, and his wife, Maureen, were indicted on 14 counts of public corruption based on improper gifts he received. Most of the expenses were gifts from Jonnie Williams, the CEO of Star Scientific, a tech-based nutrition company.
According to the indictment, McDonnell and Williams met after McDonnell was elected Governor. Allegedly, Williams offered to help cover the expense of Maureen’s dress for the inaugural ball, helped pay for McDonnell’s daughters’ weddings, invited the McDonnells to a vacation at his home, and gave a Rolex engraved with the phrase “71st Governor of Virginia.”
In return, the McDonnells allegedly assisted Williams with research Star Scientific was doing regarding a product called “antabloc.” McDonnell himself met with various Virginia officials to tout the product, and pushed for it to be further researched and tested.
McDonnell and his legal team claim no wrong has been done in this case. In a statement released after the indictment, McDonnell acknowledged the fact he received gifts and donations from Williams, but said that nothing he did was illegal because he never used his capacity as Governor to help Williams in return.
He stated, “I repeat emphatically that I did nothing illegal for Mr. Williams in exchange for what I believed was his personal generosity and friendship. I never promised – and Mr. Williams and his company never received – any government benefit of any kind from me or my Administration.”
McDonnell’s logic would suggest that a politician can receive any gift or benefit from a donor or supporter, and so long as that politician does not help the donor in return, no harm has been done. And in a way, he may be right. It isn’t unusual for highly influential people with a lot of money to give some of it, be it in the form of sports tickets, a vacation, or just a check, to politicians.
But is that really what happened here?
In the McDonnells’ case, these “gifts” were ongoing, lasting for nearly four years. And if the facts in the indictment are correct, McDonnell started promoting Williams’ product and company during that same time period.
One would be hard-pressed to find a reason that someone who starts donating large amounts of money and goods to a politician during his election campaign, and continues to donate to that politician throughout his time in office, wouldn’t expect something in return.
But even if the donor didn’t expect something, it seems even less likely that a politician accepting gifts worth so much money wouldn’t feel some kind of obligation to that donor. That could be part of the reason politicians are supposed to report all of their assets, gifts and donations included, at each year’s end. So if McDonnell did no wrong in this case, he would have had no problem reporting any stock he owned in Star Scientific on his annual records.
But apparently his wife did. According to their indictment, Maureen contacted her broker in order to sell her stock in Star Scientific before the year’s end. She then repurchased the same amount of stock at the start of the following year.
The facts of this case seem to have less to do with the interactions between the McDonnells and Williams as it does the fact they took any means necessary to deny and withhold information about these gifts and donations. While the outcome of the case has yet to be determined, if McDonnell and his wife are convicted, it will be yet another example of a political power-grab gone wrong.
[Huffington Post] [Indictment] [Washington Post] [Statement]
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Molly Hogan (@molly_hogan13)
Featured image courtesy of [Queen Bee via Flickr]
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