Putin Accomplice Julian Assange Arrested in London

Julian Assange, an ally of Vladimir Putin and seemingly Donald Trump as well has at long last been booted from the Ecuador embassy in London and was promptly arrested and carried away by London Metropolitan police (see the image at the end of this post). Unless one has been living under a rock - or watching only Fox News - it is common knowledge that Assange and his Wikileaks organization was the vehicle through which emails and documents stolen by Russian intelligence officers were released to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump associate Roger Stone remains under federal indictment for lying to Congress about his communications with Assange and Russian intelligence operatives.  The Guardian looks at Assange arrest while the New York Times looks at the larger implications.  First highlights from The Guardian: 

Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after the South American country withdrew asylum from the WikiLeaks founder.  Assange had been granted refuge at the embassy while on bail in the UK over sexual assault allegations against him in Sweden.

The Metropolitan police said: “He has been taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster magistrates court as soon as is possible.  “The MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] had a duty to execute the warrant, on behalf of Westminster magistrates court, and was invited into the embassy by the ambassador, following the Ecuadorian government’s withdrawal of asylum.”

Assange was shouting and gesticulating as he was carried out of the embassy in handcuffs by seven men and put into a waiting Met police van, video footage showed. He appeared to be carrying a book.

Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, said on Twitter: “In a sovereign decision, Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols.”

The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, tweeted: “Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years. Thank you Ecuador and President Lenín Moreno for your cooperation with the Foreign Office to ensure Assange faces justice.”

Assange claimed that if he was extradited to Sweden he might be arrested by the US and face charges relating to the publication of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.

US authorities have never officially confirmed that they have charged Assange, but in November 2018 a mistake in a document filed in an unrelated case hinted that criminal charges might have been prepared in secret.

The piece in the New York Times looks at the wider picture.  Here are excerpts:

The United States Justice Department has filed criminal charges against Mr. Assange, 47, related to the publication of classified documents, a fact that prosecutors accidentally made public in November.  He also faces a charge in a British court of jumping bail, . . .

Mr. Assange is also suspected of aiding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election by releasing material stolen from the computers of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party. In July, the Justice Department charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking those computers, and the indictment contends that at least one of them was in contact with WikiLeaks.

During the 2016 campaign, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails stolen from the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee, leading to a series of revelations that embarrassed the party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. United States investigators have said that the systems were hacked by Russian agents.

Mr. Assange made no secret of his intent to damage Mrs. Clinton, but he has insisted that he did not get the emails from Russia.

James Comey’s Abuse of Power

While many have let out a sigh of relief that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice will not be seeking indictments against Hillary Clinton, some are saying that by abusing his power and not complying with past FBI practices, Director James Comey - a Republican - gave the Hillary haters in the GOP precisely what they wanted.   Typically, if the FBI fails to find adequate evidence to indict, the investigation simply quietly goes away, sometimes without even an official announcement.  I this know from personal experience in both instances where I have an outside expert for the FBI and where I have testified as a witness in FBI/Justice Department prosecutions. An op-ed in the Washington Post by Matthew Miller, the director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office from 2009 to 2011, tears Comey apart shows the irregularity of Comey's behavior.  Here are op-ed highlights:

When FBI Director James B. Comey stepped to the lectern to deliver his remarks about Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, he violated time-honored Justice Department practices for how such matters are to be handled, set a dangerous precedent for future investigations and committed a gross abuse of his own power.

Some have praised Comey’s remarks as much-needed truth-telling from a fearless, independent law-enforcement authority, an outcome Comey no doubt had in mind. But in fact, his willingness to reprimand publicly a figure against whom he believes there is no basis for criminal charges should trouble anyone who believes in the rule of law and fundamental principles of fairness.

Justice Department rules set clear guidelines for when it is appropriate for the government to comment about individuals involved in an ongoing investigation, which this matter was until prosecutors closed it Wednesday. Prosecutors and investigators can reassure the public that a matter is being taken seriously, and in some rare cases can provide additional information to protect public safety, such as when a suspect is loose and poses a danger.

And when the department closes an investigation, it typically does so quietly, at most noting that it has investigated the matter fully and decided not to bring charges.

These practices are important because of the role the Justice Department and FBI play in our system of justice. They are not the final adjudicators of the appropriateness of conduct for anyone they investigate. Instead, they build cases that they present in court, where their assertions are backed up by evidence that can be challenged by an opposing party and ultimately adjudicated by a judge or jury.

In a case where the government decides it will not submit its assertions to that sort of rigorous scrutiny by bringing charges, it has the responsibility to not besmirch someone’s reputation by lobbing accusations publicly instead. Prosecutors and agents have followed this precedent for years.

In this case, Comey ignored those rules to editorialize about what he called carelessness by Clinton and her aides in handling classified information, a statement not grounded in any position in law.

 

In several instances, Comey made assertions that are outside the authority of the FBI. He inserted himself into a long-standing bureaucratic battle between the State Department and the FBI and intelligence agencies, making claims about classification practices at the State Department that do not fall under his jurisdiction. He raised the possibility of administrative sanctions that could be taken, another decision that is not his to make — any such sanctions, if appropriate, would be decided by the State Department, not the director of the FBI.

 

Comey argued that his statement was appropriate because this case was a matter of unusual public interest. But the department investigates cases involving extreme public interest all the time — suspected terrorist acts, alleged civil rights violations by police and possible crimes by financial institutions, for example. It is for precisely these situations that the rules exist, so that the department cannot speak outside the bounds of court when it does not bring charges.

Imagine a situation in which the Obama Justice Department investigates major conservative activists such as the Koch brothers for possibly violating the law, but finding no reason to bring charges, the attorney general holds a news conference to outline all of the ways in which she finds their conduct deplorable. 

While Clinton shouldn’t have received special treatment, she does not deserve worse treatment from her government than anyone else, either. Yet by inserting himself into the middle of a political campaign and making unprecedented public assertions, that is exactly what Comey provided.

The entire exercise seemed designed to protect Comey’s reputation for integrity, while not actually demonstrating integrity. Real integrity is making a decision, conveying it in the ordinary channels, and then taking whatever heat comes. Generations of prosecutors and agents have learned to make the right call without holding a self-congratulatory news conference to talk about it. Comey just taught them a different lesson.

The Bob/Maureen McDonnell Soap Opera Continues

PHOTO - BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH

As the sentencing of former Governor and now convicted felon, Bob McDonnell approaches, the unseemly soap opera "family values" of the Virginia GOP continue to make the stomach turn.  Earlier in the week, as reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch, two of the McDonnell children, Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky and Cailin Young, threw their mother under the bus in a letter to the Court asking for leniency for their father.  As a column in the same paper notes, however, all of the McDonnells were in on the take and showed a rapacious greed that reflects on the true "conservative Christian values" of the Virginia Republican establishment.  First, highlights on the trashing of Maureen McDonnell:

Two children of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell say his stunning downfall and conviction on public corruption charges can largely be attributed to the corrosive effects of just one person: Their mother.

Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky and Cailin Young wrote in blunt — and at times scathing — letters to a federal judge that it was former first lady Maureen McDonnell's materialism and mental-health issues that derailed the rising political career of her husband. The letters of support for Robert McDonnell were part of a trove of 440 submitted by his attorneys, who are seeking leniency at his Jan. 6 sentencing in Richmond.
"My mom . . . has always been concerned about getting discounts or freebees," McDonnell Zubowsky wrote. "She hid her coordination with people for free or discounted things or services and she didn't communicate with my dad because she knew he would not approve. . . . The testimony about my mom was not just part of a defense strategy and was not an attempt to 'throw her under the bus,' but unfortunately, was the reality."

 The column in today's Times Dispatch gives a truer view of the matter.  Here are highlights:

One of the more dramatic moments of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial was the testimony of an FBI agent who was asked by a prosecutor to identify item-by-item the Rolex wristwatch, golf equipment, designer clothes, shoes and handbags that Jonnie Williams Sr. showered on the former first family.
For more than a half-hour, the swag was paraded across the courtroom, handed by the bailiff to jurors for their examination. It was a display of legal theater that made clear the eye-popping, cash register-ringing scale of Williams’ beneficence.

Christmas, it seems, came almost every day for the McDonnells — all of them.

It’s a point overshadowed, if not altogether lost, by the orchestrated appeals of the five McDonnell children for leniency for their father. In letters to the federal judge who next week could send him to prison — 10 to 12 years for trading on his office, if the prosecution gets its way — the three daughters and twin sons, all recipients of Williams’ sometimes-garish largesse, say that Bob McDonnell doesn’t deserve to be locked away.

If it was OK for mom and dad to avail themselves of Williams’ generosity, then it was OK for the kids, too. Children learn from their parents, especially from their parents’ conduct. Some of the most powerful lessons from this are absorbed by children when parents don’t think the children are watching.

Privately, Bob McDonnell set a different example. There are few indications that, before the former first couple came under federal scrutiny, they or their children fully considered how unseemly it was to accept or solicit gift after gift after gift from a rich man looking for favors from the government that McDonnell led.  But maybe that’s because the family, in general, and McDonnell, in particular, didn’t think anyone would notice. 

Under Virginia law, it was up to McDonnell — and McDonnell, alone — to make public the goodies that he and his family harvested from Williams.  Two features of the ethics statutes allowed him to obscure, if not conceal, the gifts and sweetheart loans: First, the law relies on the official to police himself or herself. Second, that allows the official to determine whether a benefactor is a relative or personal friend. Gifts from either do not have to be disclosed.

Are not their [the McDonnell children] appeals to Spencer, while emotionally moving and emblematic of a deep devotion to their father, somewhat diminished by a troubling fact? They were a party to this tawdry enterprise.

Cailin’s 2011 wedding at the Executive Mansion was paid for, in part, with $15,000 from Williams. Daughter Jeanine and her husband took $10,000 from Williams as a wedding present, only returning it — as Jeanine testified in a scripted utterance at her parents’ trial — “after we realized he was a criminal.”

Sons Sean and Bobby were given golf clubs, a bag and shoes by Williams as well as occasional privileges at his exclusive country club outside Richmond. The twins, both of whom have had dust-ups with police over their after-hours conduct, resisted pressure from their father to return the equipment. They dismissed his concerns that it was inappropriate for them to accept it.

The "conservatives" in the Virginia GOP disparage gays and many others as "sinners" and "immoral."  Perhaps they need to take a good look at themselves in the mirror.  They are modern day Pharisees who daily exhibit behavior that makes the case for walking away from Christianity.

Bob and Maureen McDonnell Convicted of Corruption

I hope Maureen REALLY enjoyed that dress!!

The Richmond Times Dispatch (as are other news outlets) is reporting that both Bob and Maureen McDonnell have been found guilty of criminal corruption earlier today.  This makes McDonnell the first Virginia governor in the Commonwealth's history to be convicted of a felony.  Part of me feels some sorrow for Bob and Maureen McDonnell who I have known for 20 years.  But another part of me feels no sorrow.  Why?  Because along the way in the pursuit of power, both of them sold their souls.  And not just for money.  Bob McDonnell's lust for power made him further the interests/agenda of vile groups like The Family Foundation and those who hate others based on their skin color or national origin.  None of those are things that a decent Catholic would ever do.  Here are highlights from the Dispatch article:

Bob McDonnell is the first Virginia governor convicted of a felony.

 A federal jury today convicted Virginia’s 71st governor and former first lady Maureen McDonnell on multiple counts in their corruption trial in U.S. District Court.

Bob McDonnell has been convicted on 11 of 13 counts.

Maureen McDonnell has been convicted on nine of 13 counts.

Both McDonnells sobbed openly, but quietly as the verdicts were read. Family members and supporters also wept openly.

Sentencing will be Jan. 6 at 10 a.m.

The Virginian Pilot also aptly notes:

It has been a precipitous fall for Bob McDonnell, who held elective office for 22 years, much of it as a state delegate from Virginia Beach, and as recently as two years ago was a rising star in national Republican politics.

I suspect that the McDonnells will appeal, but it looks like an uphill battle given the number of counts they were each convicted on.  So much for Virginia GOP family values.   Now we need to see Rick Perry and Scott Walker convicted of felonies!!

For McDonnell Jury, It’s Back to the Basics

Virginia's ongoing soap opera - i.e., the criminal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell - has now moved into waiting mode much like the summer wait for the answer of who shot JR on the old Dallas series.  The case has gone to the jury which received over two hours of instructions from the presiding federal judge.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the waiting game which, no matter the result will leave Virginia looking like a corrupt banana republic politically.  Here are highlights:

“And with that, we will send you out to begin your deliberations,” said U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer, concluding — after 2 hours and 10 minutes Tuesday — his detailed instructions to jurors in the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial. “You take your time. It’s your business now.”

Moments later, as the jurors filed out of Spencer’s seventh-floor courtroom, the prosecutors, the defense lawyers and the accused rose in the customary gesture of respect for the seven men and five women whose decisions could lead to the once-unthinkable: a former Virginia governor and his wife behind bars.

To convict or acquit Bob and Maureen on any and all of 26 counts requires the agreement of all 12 jurors. An 8-4 vote won’t cut it. A unanimous vote is mandatory to find the McDonnells guilty or not guilty.

Also, the trial could yield multiple verdicts, muddying a case that prosecutors represented as a clear example of government-for-sale.

The jury could convict Bob and Maureen on some charges; deadlock on others. If there’s a hung jury on certain counts, Spencer could direct jurors to keep working. Were the jury unsuccessful, he could declare a mistrial on the outstanding counts. The verdict on resolved charges would stand. The U.S. Justice Department might attempt a do-over on the unsettled issues.

For instance, Bob could be convicted on a single count of bank fraud; specifically, failing to disclose loans from the protected-from-prosecution Jonnie Williams Sr. on a refi application for the McDonnells’ cash-hemorrhaging resort properties.

Maureen, alone, could be found guilty of obstructing a criminal investigation. After she had been questioned by state police in 2013 on her relationship with Williams, Maureen returned the $20,000 in designer clothing he bought for her in New York. The togs were accompanied by a note in which Maureen said she’d planned to give them back. The government says she was trying to mislead investigators.

The government, Spencer said in his instructions, is not required to produce a contract or expressed agreement to a conspiracy. Plus, it’s not necessary to prove the scheme was successful; unsuccessful schemes are illegal, too.

Further, this corruption case does not require, nor does it rely on, an explicit exchange of goods for services, the so-called quid pro quo. The law recognizes — and the courts have affirmed — that such a trade could be based on a knowing wink and nod.

As for the penalties the McDonnells could face, they’re tougher for bank fraud than corruption.

A conviction for false statements to a federally insured financial institution carries a sentence of up to 30 years and a $1 million fine.

Twenty years is the maximum prison term on each of the corruption charges: conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud; honest-services wire fraud; obtaining property under color of official right; conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right, and obstruction of an official proceeding. These offenses can also carry financial penalties.

All in all, this case has been a train wreck for Virginia, but especially for GOP's pretense of upholding "family values."

The Myth of "The Virginia Way" and the McDonnell Corruption Trial

Having lived half my life now in Virginia I am well acquainted with what often is a pretense of civility - especially in politics - when behind the veneer things are down right cut throat and dirty.  No one is more skilled in knifing you in the back than genteel Virginia belles and gentleman.  Feigned courtliness doesn't lessen the pain of the knife slipping between one's ribs.   One positive aspect of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial is that it has perhaps once and for all destroyed the myth of "the Virginia Way" - the myth that civility and the best interests of the public are forever foremost in the minds of Virginia politicians.   The truth is that Virginia politics is a snake pit where greed and seeking advantage through any means are the norm.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the issue.  Here are excerpts:

No verdict is necessary in the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption case to know that the wrenching scandal is certain to change Virginia politics. It will probably get worse before it gets better.

The historic five-week trial will lay waste to the notion of the “Virginia way,” a quaint concept that elections and governance are conducted with mannered dignity by men and women who — because they have an agonizing sense of public mission — know what’s best for the rest of us.

This idea has been on life support for years, weakened by the rise of two-party competition, beginning in 1969 with the election of the state’s first modern Republican governor, Linwood Holton. The GOP wanted in on the big feed that had been reserved almost exclusively for Democrats for most of the 20th century.

Having used the poll tax and literacy tests to disenfranchise African-Americans and poor whites, Democrats kept the electorate small and manageable — and largely in the dark about their continuing manipulations of the system.

 

Favor-seeking and back-scratching — acts that a federal jury could criminalize by finding the McDonnells guilty of trading booty and bling for state support of a disputed dietary supplement — have long been the rule in Richmond.

But it wasn’t called that. Rather, it was known as “sound policy,” a way to preserve the state’s business-friendly climate — and, by extension, the control of cliquish conservative, often-prosperous politicians who did the corpocracy’s bidding.

This arrangement may have helped profits, but it didn’t always help Virginia’s people. . . . Politics was a members-only activity, the prerogative of the few. It was intentionally opaque. If the personal became public, it was dealt with swiftly and sternly.

It’s no wonder, then, that Garrett Epps, who famously chronicled the clash between Old and New Virginia in his 1977 novel, “The Shad Treatment,” now refers to his home state as the “Banana Dominion.”

Fast-forward to 2014: Not only have Virginians been told for more than a year by newspapers and prosecutors about the alleged misdeeds of the McDonnells on behalf of the fully immunized Jonnie Williams Sr., Bob and Maureen also have — as the cornerstone of their defense — shared tawdry details of their life together apart. It may be TMI — too much information — but get used to it.

Political candidates have long bared their souls, but usually according to a script. The idea is to establish a bond with voters; that they’re inclined to support the candidate who is most like them.

McDonnell mastered this. Running for attorney general in 2005 and governor four years later, he was an easygoing, typical suburban kid from Fairfax County, talking about kitchen-table issues with friends and family. Now we know the conversation apparently was conducted with flying plates.

In Virginia, political parties and the political press will now feel compelled to more closely vet candidates and officials. But the magnified scrutiny will likely extend to those who usually receive little or none: spouses and children.

The picture that emerged of the McDonnells — one painted by the prosecution and, to a lesser degree, the defense — is of a sprawling family for which gift-taking was a full-time enterprise. Living in the fishbowl that is the Executive Mansion, they availed themselves of Williams’ gaudy largesse: a Rolex watch, designer togs, five-figure checks as wedding presents, weekends at posh resorts, golf outings and sports equipment. The McDonnells chose not to notice that eventually the public would.

Next year, Virginians decide control of the House of Delegates and state Senate. Partisan redistricting will protect many seats, particularly those of Republicans, whose brand has been badly dinged by the McDonnell mess. Their tailor-made districts can’t protect them from shame.

Bob McDonnell Is Now Living With Catholic Priest Busted For Public Gay Sex

The night time soap opera aspects of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial just continue to go off the charts.  That McDonnell was ever seen as a rising star in the Republican Party shows just how bankrupt that party has become.  Now, on top of everything else, we find out that Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell has moved out of the family home and is living with a Catholic priest who was busted in Norfolk for public gay sex.  Seriously, it would be hard to make up stuff this good!  As Joe Jervis notes, one of McDonnell's first actions as Governor was to strip LGBT people of protection under a statewide anti-discrimination executive order, declaring that there is no evidence of such discrimination.  The Contributor has more details on this soap opera:

The following story most definitely falls into the "you can't make this shit up" category. Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, now on trial for corruption as governor (and busy throwing his wife under the bus while rolling back and forth over her a few times, proving he's a complete cad as well as a sleazeball), has moved out of his home with Maureen and moved in with a priest: Rev. Wayne Ball of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Richmond. Well, how about we meet the good Reverend (note: thanks to Ben "Not Larry Sabato" Tribbett for the tip on this one).

Yeah, it's this same guy.

The Rev. Wayne L. Ball, a Norfolk priest who pleaded guilty late last year to a misdemeanor sex offense, has been reassigned to St. John's Catholic Church in Highland Springs, according to The Catholic Virginian, a biweekly diocesan newspaper. The move is effective June 2.

Ball, 42, has served as pastor of Norfolk's Holy Trinity Catholic Church since 2000. The current pastor at St. John's, the Rev. David V. McGuire, will replace Ball at Holy Trinity.

In December, Ball pleaded guilty in Norfolk General District Court to the misdemeanor charge of frequenting a bawdy place. Norfolk police arrested Ball and a 41-year-old Richmond man on the night before Thanksgiving in a parked car in a Norfolk park. The judge continued Ball's case until July 8 and will dismiss the charge if the priest has no further criminal problems and completes 80 hours of community service by June 3. The man in the car with Ball received a similar deal.

Anyway, this is the priest - Wayne Ball - who "Homophobe Bob" McDonnell is now living with in a rectory in Richmond. Just when you thought this trial couldn't get any more soap opera-ish or bizarre...

P.S. Again, let me just emphasize that I don't have any problem whatsoever with Rev. Ball being gay. I do have a problem with Bob McDonnell spending his career telling everybody what's right and wrong sexually as well as who they can and can't marry; voting for anti-gay legislation; and generally being a homophobic jerk; and then moving in with a gay priest after moving out with his wife Maureen.

Bob and Maureen McDonnell - A Case Study of Virginia GOP "Family Values"

While thousands were at Norfolk's Town Point Park supporting marriage equality in Virginia, the federal criminal trial of former GOP governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen continues to provide a case study in the type of marriages the Virginia GOP and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation want to protect.  Candidly, there seems to be little "sanctity of marriage" in the McDonnell's marriage and all too many of the marriages I witnessed during the "straight" phase of my life in a outwardly perfect high end neighborhood in Virginia Beach.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the ongoing spectacle of  back stabbing and throwing one's spouse under the bus that is one of the main theme of the McDonnell trial.  Here are excerpts:

Former aides Mary-Shea Sutherland, Sarah Scarbrough and Phil Cox and sister-in-law Mo Carney McDonnell chucked Maureen McDonnell under the bus. Then, husband Bob backed over her — gently.

The thread running through the testimony of prosecution and defense witnesses is that Maureen is volatile and insecure, if not unstable.

Depending on who’s asking the questions or who’s answering them, she embodies the rage of Lady Macbeth, the emotional frailty of Blanche DuBois, the blonde ambition of Eva Peron and the subtly of Snooki.

For 20 days, Maureen has quietly endured a carefully scripted trashing. Her freedom could depend on it.

Her husband of 38 years, the man with whom she held hands in public as a wife, first lady and co-defendant, now barely speaks to her. As the former governor squirmed past Maureen in Judge James Spencer’s courtroom Friday, they repelled each other — much as magnets do when their like poles are placed together.

Bob knows he’s in serious trouble; that getting out of it is serious business. He’s been in tight spots before — but politically. Each time, he successfully extracted himself on the strength of his on-cue earnestness, his talent for parsing words, and his deeply held belief that if he says something often enough, people will actually believe him.

There was Bob’s artful use in 2003 of a phrase heard often during his three days of testimony this past week on damning details of his backroom dealings with the protected-from-prosecution Jonnie Williams Sr.: “Not that I can recall.”

Eleven years ago, when Bob was chairman of the House courts committee, that was his response when asked whether he — as a married man with five children — had violated a since-scrapped prohibition on sodomy that was a factor in the doomed reappointment of a female judge accused by another woman of sexual harassment.

Possibly facing decades in prison and millions of dollars in fines, Bob — in his latest and riskiest charm offensive — is relying on these time-proven skills. But he is throwing in — or is that throwing out? — Maureen for good measure.

Bob lives for another day, but chivalry is dead.

This requires piling on Maureen — and requires that she take it. A reminder of that will be how closely, if at all, her lawyers question Bob. They’ll have a shot at him starting Monday, followed by prosecutors. And the feds are certain to have a slew of questions.

Further, Maureen’s continuing silence is interpreted as consent to the defense’s argument that she and Bob, their marriage having collapsed, were utterly incapable of communication.

Ergo, they couldn’t possibly conspire to trade on Virginia’s governorship for at least $177,000 in gifts, trips, cash and loans from Williams. A rich man, he was angling for state support of a supposed, tobacco-derived cure-all that, he hoped, would make him even richer.

McDonnell driving Jonnie Williams' Ferrari

Bob McDonnell, Maureen McDonnell and GOP Family Values - Lies and Undisclosed Loans

Towne Bank's Will Sessoms

In some ways I was wondering why Will Sessoms, Mayor of Virginia Beach, was a witness in the corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell.  Now, it appears he was called as a witness not because of his political office but rather his position as a banker.  The Richmond Times Dispatch has focused on McDonnell's financial difficulties surrounding Virginia Beach investment properties.Now, the focus is on the loans that were undisclosed on financial statements submitted to Towne Bank and the lies Maureen McDonnell told to State Police investigators.  Here are excerpts:

Prosecutors put the mayor of Virginia Beach on the witness stand Tuesday and shifted the focus of the trial of Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen from corruption to fraud.

Shown a copy of a personal financial statement completed by the former governor, William Sessoms, Jr., president of Towne Financial Services Group, said it failed to include loans from either Jonnie Williams Sr. or Starwood Trust.

One of 14 charges against the McDonnells alleges Bob McDonnell broke the law when he submitted a personal financial statement to TowneBank in October 2012 in which he failed to disclose he owed at least $50,000 to Williams.

Sessoms helped the McDonnells and Bob McDonnell’s sister, Maureen McDonnell finance two Virginia Beach properties, one for $249,990 in 2005 and another for $722,550 in 2006.

Shown payment records for the loans, Sessoms, who said Bob McDonnell is a friend he has known since the 1980s, said that from 2009 to 2013 it appeared late fees were imposed 18 times for the smaller loan and 29 times for the larger one.

Late fees were assessed when a loan payment was 15 days late. Sessoms said he had several conversations with McDonnell about not letting a payment get 30 days late or it would be reported and affect his credit score.

Hagan, the state police investigator, said he and fellow investigator James Lyons interviewed the first lady on Feb. 15, 2013 to discuss an aspect of the ongoing investigation into theft from the Executive Mansion by former chef Todd Schneider.

Hagan also said the interview was to learn more about two checks -- a $50,000 payment to first lady Maureen McDonnell as well as a $15,000 check drawn on a Williams account that was written to Schneider's catering company as payment for food at the June 2011 Executive Mansion wedding reception for the McDonnells' daughter, Cailin.

Hagan testified that in the 2013 interview Maureen McDonnell said her husband had known Williams for years and had been a “friend of the family for a long time” -- having met the governor right after he left his service in the Army.

Evidence, however, suggests that McDonnell and Williams did not meet until 2009, when Williams provided the use of his private plane to help McDonnell in his run for governor.

Hagan also said that Maureen McDonnell told him that the $50,000 check she received from Williams in May 2011 was a personal loan, for which she had signed a loan agreement and had been making payments to Williams.

The investigator said that at the end of the interview he asked the first lady to produce the paperwork for the alleged loan, to which the first lady said she had signed the documents and sent them back to Williams.

Hagan testified that Mrs. McDonnell did not know before the interview that she was under investigation. Hagan testified there were no bank records showing Maureen McDonnell making payments to Williams.

There's more, but the overall picture is tawdry at best.

There Are No Innocents in the McDonnell Corruption Trial

After taking positions that have made Virginia a laughing stock and earned him nicknames such as "Taliban Bob" and "Governor Ultrasound" former GOP governor Bob McDonnell continue to put Virginia in the tabloid headlines as the federal criminal corruption trial of McDonnell and wife Maureen continues like more episodes reruns of Dallas or Dynasty from the 1980's.  Sadly, as a column in the Washington Post notes, there are few, if any, innocent players in the sordid saga of greed and political bribes.  The bottom line is that Bob and Maureen McDonnell knew better, but tossed integrity aside.  Here are column excerpts that looks at the tawdry storyline:

There are no innocents among the star characters in Courtroom 7000, where the former governor of Virginia and his wife are standing trial in a federal public-corruption case.

The prime players are all manipulators — the helmet-haired politician who once aspired to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; his striving, ex-cheerleader wife; and the fast-talking nutritional supplement entrepreneur.

On Wednesday, the rapt gaze of former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell followed Jonnie Ray Williams, a former car salesman turned nutraceutical entrepreneur, as he strode across the courtroom and took the witness stand for the first time. I was waiting for her to clasp her hands together and moon, “Oh, Jonnie,” or maybe blow him a kiss.

Her puppy crush is a sad act scripted to avoid jail time for allegedly selling the prestige of the governor’s office in exchange for the Rolex on her husband’s wrist, the Ferrari joy ride, the private jet trips, the $70,000 life raft to save a real estate investment, the vacation at the lake house, the help with a daughter’s wedding, the fancy golf gear and the rounds of golf Bob McDonnell and his sons played at $300 a pop.

No wonder one of the jurors got sick in the middle of the trial this week. 

It’s no secret that the picture-perfect political families we see on campaign posters are usually the Dysfunctional Family Robinson behind closed doors. Governors can be especially messy when it comes to family affairs.

The McDonnells are no different. They were an upper-middle-class family with five kids when they landed in a high-profile world of money and prestige. And they were in over their heads.

Williams saw them as an easy target — self-made folks who never saw a silver spoon until they earned one themselves.

This wasn’t about a disintegrating marriage and an emotional, needy wife. This was a couple who presented themselves as a shining example of all that is moral and righteous. And once Virginians, believing that they were good people, had put McDonnell in office, they allegedly sold off what the people of Virginia had given them — the public trust. That’s why they were charged in a 14-count federal indictment.

Most of us play by the rules, refusing to give in to greed on a daily basis. . . . . Integrity and honesty abound in this country. 

The McDonnells, by contrast, seemed all too eager to cash in. Ferraris? Plane rides? Golf clubs? A wedding catered? They knew better.

 Ouch!!! 

The McDonnell Soap Opera Trial Continues - GOP Family Values on Display

While Victoria Cobb and similar neurotic Christofascists continue to lament the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down Virginia's same sex marriage bans, Bob and Maureen McDonnell are providing a glimpse at what a godly Christian marriage really looks like: rapacious greed, a willingness to ignore the law, alleged alienation, and putting on a show to satisfy what others expect.  Seemingly, all that is fine from a Christofascist perspective since (i) marriage is only for procreation - and according to past fathers of the Catholic Church even that is sinful if the couple enjoys physical sex - and (ii) one's allegiance is supposed to be subservient to one's slavish obedience to God/the church fathers.   The Richmond Times Dispatch continues to provide coverage of the McDonnell corruption trial show what a GOP version of a godly marriage is all about.  Here are highlights:

Williams earlier testified that after a stock transfer to then-Gov. Bob McDonnell could not be arranged, he had a $50,000 check from the Starwood Trust, a trust for his children, made out to MoBo Realty.

"What did you expect to get in return from the governor," asked Michael Dry, an assistant U.S. attorney.

"To help me move this product forward in Virginia," said Williams. He said he hoped the governor could assist with testing of Anatabloc by the state medical schools, by publicly supporting it and in other ways.

"If you need cash, let me know," he wrote to the governor, adding that his business "was about to break out strong."

Williams told the court that later that summer, he expensed to Star Scientific a trip to Cape Cod, which included McDonnell and his wife, McDonnell's friend and political action committee director Phil Cox and his spouse and a doctor with whom Williams worked on Anatabloc.

Star picked up the tab for golf, sailing, lodging and private airfare on Williams' jet and a clambake on the beach of the luxury resort, capping the evening with a $5,000 bottle of Louis XIII cognac.

Dressed in a dark suit and muted tie, the short and soft-spoken dietary supplement impresario testified that he was with Maureen McDonnell at the Executive Mansion on Aug. 1, 2011, when she asked him what kind of watch he was wearing. He said he told her it was a Rolex and she remarked she would really like the governor to have one.

"You want me to get you a Rolex for the governor?'" he said he asked. "'Yes,'" she said.

He said he bought the Rolex for $6,000 to $7,000 at a store in Malibu, California. Williams said his wife suggested getting it engraved. He called Maureen McDonnell from the store to ask what she would like the engraving to say. She said "71st governor of Virginia."

The transactional nature of the relationship between the governor and his wife and Williams is central to the case being brought by the federal government, which has charged the former first couple with using the governor's office to illegally assist Williams and his company in exchange for the personal gifts received.

Dry asked Williams whether he thought he would have had the launch for his product at the Executive Mansion if he hadn't spent the money he did on the McDonnells.  "No, I did not," he said.

Williams explained the circumstances surrounding the May 31, 2011, trip to Sarasota Florida during which he flew then-first lady Maureen McDonnell on his private plane to participate in a research conference and fundraiser for Anatabloc.

Under questioning from prosecutor Dry, Williams told the eight men and four women of the jury that he put up the first lady and her aide, Mary-Shea Sutherland, at the Ritz Carlton hotel, and that she did not hesitate at the opportunity to address the crowd of doctors, researcher and investors assembled at the Roskamp Institute. 

There's much more.  The take away?  The Christofascists/Virginia GOP support corrupt marriages like that of the McDonnells but oppose loving same sex relationships where no member of the couple is out to rip off Virginia taxpayers and put government favors up for sale. 

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.

Bob McDonnell and Wife Due in Federal Court Today

One of the reasons that the Virginia Republicans are making so much noise about Mark Herring's decision to not defend Virginia's gay marriage ban is because they want to take attention away from headlines like this: "Former Va. Governor, Wife Due in Federal Court."  It is headlines like this that show how rotten things are under the supposedly "family values" crowd that preaches one thing while doing something very different in practice.  And let's not forget that the evangelical Christians hyperventilating over Herring's action as a group  have the highest divorce rate in America.  So much for the sanctity of marriage.  NBC 4 in Washington looks at today's court appearance by Bob and Maureen McDonnell.  Here are excerpts:

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, are set to make their first court appearance on federal corruption charges. 

A bond hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m., followed by an arraignment at 11 a.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Richmond.

The former Republican governor and his wife were indicted Tuesday after a lengthy federal investigation of his relationship with a former CEO of a dietary supplement maker.

The 14-count indictment accuses the McDonnells of accepting gifts totaling more than $135,000 including loans, a Rolex watch, rounds of golf at an exclusive club and designer clothes, among other gifts. It connects those gifts to support that Maureen and Bob McDonnell gave to Star Scientific, a Glen Allen, Va.-based company that makes dietary supplements.

McDonnell and his wife are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud; three counts of honest-services wire fraud; one count of conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right; six counts of obtaining property under color of official right; and one count of making false statements to a federal credit union.

McDonnell is also charged with an additional count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and Maureen McDonnell is charged with one count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

Yep, those are the type of "conservative" and "family values" that the Virginia GOP doesn't want people to notice.  Hence the increased hysteria over gay marriage.  Any thing to change the topic.