Judge: Bob McDonnell Lawyers "Dancing Through Fantasy Land"

Virginia Republicans are quietly praying that the federal indictments against former Governor Bob McDonnell and his greed obsessed wife will somehow quietly go away.  The last thing that they want is for a trial and a public airing of all of the corruption and unseemliness that was apparently the norm in the McDonnell administration.  To this end, McDonnell and his Marie Antoinette like wife continue to try to distract the Court and blow smoke screens.  The Court is not amused.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

RICHMOND — A federal judge on Tuesday signaled that he is growing increasingly frustrated with the voluminous and at times rancorous filings by defense attorneys representing former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife in a corruption case, dismissing one of their recent requests as “dancing through fantasy land” and asking them and prosecutors to limit their written disputes “for the sanctity of the trees.”

U.S. District Judge James Spencer’s offhand comments during the less than 30-minute hearing were, in many ways, more interesting than his ruling on the legal issue at hand. The defense — arguing that it was unfair that a related civil case had been put on hold at the request of prosecutors — had asked the judge to force the government to withdraw that request. The judge ruled that he would not intervene.

But after issuing his decision, Spencer warned both parties to cut down on the disputes that made it to his desk. He said he viewed the case against the McDonnells as “not particularly complex” — putting him at odds with defense attorneys, who have sought to portray the allegations as a novel stretching of federal law — and he warned that he would not be swayed by references to other cases that different prosecutors had botched, such as that involving the late senator Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska.

“The defendants have been essentially operating on the assumption, and urging the court to operate on the assumption, that the government is going to do wrong,” Spencer said. “I don’t make that assumption.”

Although jurors likely will decide the fate of the McDonnells, Spencer’s views of the case are critically important. He will decide on defense attorneys’ motion to dismiss the indictment, expected to be filed soon, and he will decide how jurors should be instructed on the law should the case go to trial.

Spencer seemed skeptical of defense attorneys’ motion about the civil case almost from the moment the hearing began, saying he had not ruled on it previously because he could not find case law “that came anywhere near it.”

Spencer noted that another federal judge had approved the prosecutors’ request for the delay. At one point, he characterized the defense argument as “just dancing through fantasy land” and said there was “no support in the law for what the defendant is asking for.”

Also Tuesday, Spencer issued a written order granting, in large part, defense attorneys’ request to subpoena the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission for documents they say might help them question Williams.

The McDonnells’ attorneys and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment after the hearing.