by James A. Bacon
More interesting testimony from the McDonnell trial yesterday. In the balance, the defense bolstered its case. But it was not entirely convincing.
The other Maureen. Mo McDonnell, Bob McDonnell’s little sister, was a successful business executive who had worked for IBM, Regent University and Amerigroup, culminating with a salary of $540,000 in 2012 and accumulating savings of more than $1 million. Mo testified that she had more than enough money to cover the cost of maintaining the troubled MoBo Real Estate Partnership, undercutting the prosecution’s argument that Bob borrowed money from Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams out of desperation to keep the real estate partnership afloat. Indeed, when her bother decided to repay the loans to Williams, she was the one who fronted him the money to do so.
Although she could have covered any shortfall herself with a $150,000 payment she received when she left Amerigroup, she explained, she and Bob decided that interest rates were so low that it made more sense to borrow the money so she could invest her own funds at a higher rate of return.
Really? I’m not sure that passes the smell test. She is asking jurors to believe that it made more sense to borrow money from Jonnie Williams, even though Bob knew how it would look if the loan were made public and even though he had discussed with Williams (if we are to believe Williams) ways to avoid disclosure. Any reasonable person would conclude the exact opposite, that it made far more sense for Bob to borrow the money from his sister in a transaction that would have created no questions — as he ultimately did when he repaid Williams. If I were the prosecution, I would hammer that hard. It is not a convincing explanation. My hunch: There is more to the story, and we haven’t heard it yet.
Poor Maureen. Mo McDonnell and Kathleen Scott, a special assistant to the governor’s wife, provide new details on the first lady’s state of mind. The story of Po’ Maureen’s out-of-control behavior has been so consistent throughout the trail that there is little point in enumerating all the anecdotes here. But one round of testimony advances us to a new level of understanding.
Although McDonnell defended his wife to others, he acknowledged that she had a problem. As Mo testified (as reported by the Virginian-Pilot):
The first lady once reduced her to tears with a biting comment during a weekend family gathering in 2012, McDonnell’s sister testified. She told her husband she wanted to leave.
“Bob came up and apologized and begged me to stay,” she said. “He said he was working on it. He was trying to get her help.”
As I have observed in previous posts, it is obvious that Po’ Maureen was suffering from depression, mood swings, hysterical outbursts and other signs of mental illness. This testimony confirms that while Bob coped by withdrawing and tuning her out, he also recognized she had a problem. I would not be surprised if testimony reveals that she sought psychiatric treatment and at some point took medication. The McDonnells may not choose to release this information because they consider it private and shameful. They should not. Millions of Americans suffer from depression and related disorders. Suffering from depression is not a moral failing. (The behavior resulting from depression can be but the depression itself is not.)
Acknowledging Maureen’s mental illness would not excuse illegal or unethical conduct, especially on Bob’s part, but it would would put the McDonnells in a different light than the prosecution’s explanation, that Bob joined in a calculatingly immoral conspiracy with his wife to commit fraud. Also, the Maureen-the-depressed-wife seems less harsh and demeaning than the Maureen-the-bitch defense.
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