Tag: McDonnell trial
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Is Virginia America’s Most Corrupt State?
by DJ Rippert As the Rolex turns. The McDonnell family corruption trial has Virginians transfixed. People can’t wait to get the latest installment in this soap opera of a trial. Most Virginians wonder at how this could have happened. I wonder at how it could have taken so long for America’s most corrupt state…
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From Sordid to Squalid
by James A. Bacon A sordid tale grew even more squalid yesterday as Jonnie Williams Sr., the star witness against Maureen and Bob McDonnell, spent the day on the witness stand. Williams, the former CEO of vitamin-supplement maker Star Scientific, declaimed that, despite all the time he had spent with them and gifts he had lavished…
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Jonnie Williams: “This Was a Business Relationship”
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s best soap opera in 20 years continued yesterday as Jonnie R. Williams, Sr., the star witness in the prosecution of former Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen, took the witness stand. Williams added little new substance to the public record that wasn’t listed in the indictments but he did flesh out a…
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Misery in High Places
In his post on the McDonnell trial, Peter Galuszka asked a profound question (something I don’t normally give him credit for!). Does living in the fishbowl of the Governor’s Mansion, with all the attendant pressure, put incalculable strain on a governor’s domestic life? “What should ‘public service’ be and how much should it take from one’s…
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Virginia’s Trial of the Decade
by James A. Bacon Jury selection for the trial of former Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen begins today. The 43-page federal indictment against the former First Family piles up a mass of detail to present a devastating portrait. Particularly damaging are revelations that the McDonnells intervened behind the scenes to help their friend and…