The ugly details of a marriage that was falling apart in the governor’s mansion will get dragged in front a jury in the coming weeks as former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, fight federal corruption charges.
Their marriage was so broken that a smooth-talking salesman was able to “dupe” Maureen McDonnell into thinking he cared for her, the McDonnells’ attorneys said Tuesday. Now the couple is accused of taking bribes from that salesman, former Star Scientific CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr., and promoting a company product in return.
Attorneys gave opening arguments in the case against the McDonnells on Tuesday, and the first few prosecution witnesses took the stand, including one of the McDonnells’ daughters and Williams’ personal assistant.
Defense attorneys said Williams showered Maureen McDonnell with cash, gifts and the attention a busy governor didn’t have time to give.
“He listened to her,” said Bill Burck, Maureen McDonnell’s lead attorney. “He spent time with her. … She had a crush on Jonnie Williams.
“She thought he liked her, too,” Burck said.
Williams also fooled the federal government, according to Burck and the other attorneys mounting a vigorous defense for the former first couple. Williams changed his story about interactions with the McDonnells repeatedly, until he had something worth immunity from federal prosecutors, they told jurors. And not just in this case, but for a shady $10 million stock deal as well, they said.
McDonnell himself will take the stand to refute Williams’ story, according to his lead attorney, John Brownlee. It may be a while, though. The prosecution lists 61 potential witnesses, and it may be weeks before the defense presents its version of the case.
Williams is the prosecution’s chief witness as it looks to prove numerous counts of corruption against the couple. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the McDonnells took more than $150,000 in gifts and loans, many kept secret — and promoted Anatabloc, a controversial supplement Williams was seeking to build credibility for and market.
Government attorneys told jurors not to buy into a defense smoke screen that paints Williams and Maureen McDonnell as true friends, or something more. It was “always just a business relationship,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber said.
“(The McDonnells) knew what Mr. Williams wanted, and they gave it to him,” she said.
Aber gave jurors a taste of the massive volume of emails, texts and other records the government will present in coming weeks. The records show Williams writing five-figure checks for the couple, with one coming just days before the governor set a meeting between Williams and key state officials.
Aber also said McDonnell drove Williams’ Ferrari three hours back to Richmond — from a weekend family vacation spent at Williams’ lake house — then emailed a cabinet secretary to set a meeting with Williams the next morning.
She repeatedly referred to Williams as “a vitamin salesman.”
Defense attorneys said Williams’ relationship was primarily with Maureen McDonnell, and that she was “a true believer” in Anatabloc. Daughter Cailin Young testified that her mother had been interested in supplements since a breast cancer scare in her late teens and said her mother recommended Anatabloc to her for joint issues.
Burck told jurors that Maureen McDonnell “drank the Kool-Aid” on the product.
Prosecutors said the governor was far more involved in efforts to get into Williams’ pockets than the defense let on.
“The governor himself was asking for money,” Aber told jurors, highlighting a text in which McDonnell asked for a $20,000 loan.
Brownlee characterized the governor’s support for Star Scientific as ordinary for a politician focused on job creation, given that the company was headquartered in Virginia. He noted that Star Scientific never got a state grant or contract.
“No one has to pay Bob McDonnell to use a Virginia product or get him to say nice things,” Brownlee said. “Bob McDonnell eats Virginia ham. He drinks Virginia wine.”
The defense said Maureen McDonnell interacted with Williams far more than the governor. And since she wasn’t a public official — first lady is a voluntary role — she was free to take any gifts from him that she liked, they said.
Brownlee promised to show jurors how deep the divide was between the McDonnells and “what happened behind closed doors with Maureen” as the governor was “serving the public night and day, and having nothing left for her.” Young testified Tuesday that she rarely spent time with her father when he was governor, and had to go through a scheduler to see him.
Opening arguments took up most of Tuesday morning and the early afternoon. The rest of the day focused largely on Young’s wedding, for which Williams kicked in $15,000.
Young started crying as prosecutors showed her pictures from the wedding. She said there’s “a black cloud” now over that day.
Williams wrote the wedding caterers a check after meeting Young a single time. Young said her mother told her this was a gift, given because Williams was impressed during their brief encounter at the governor’s mansion.
Prosecutors noted that the catering company ended up returning more than $7,000 out of the check because the McDonnells had already paid much of the balance owed. Maureen McDonnell kept that money until after Virginia State Police investigators — who began this investigation, then turned it over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation — questioned her about the family’s dealings with Williams.
Young said that, after that interview, her father found out her mother had kept the wedding money. He demanded that she give it to their daughter, because it was a gift, Young said.
It was one of several gifts Young and her husband received to help pay for the wedding. Her dress cost $43, she said, because a friend at a dress shop gave her a voucher for $1,000. And David Ramadan, a jeweler who is now a state legislator, donated the engraved picture frames that the Youngs gave to guests.
Williams’ gift was by far the largest, Young said. She said she considered it a gift to her and her husband, not a payoff for her parents.
Jurors also heard late Tuesday from Jerri Fulkerson, Williams’ assistant. The prosecution seemed to be laying a foundation with her, confirming that Williams ordered various checks written to the McDonnells, as well as other details.
Fulkerson testified that the couple used Williams’ private jet to travel to the NCAA basketball tournament in Houston in 2011, when Virginia Commonwealth University was in the Final Four. The couple used Williams’ jet a number of other times, too, according to the government’s 14-count indictment against them.
Fulkerson will be back on the stand Wednesday, when the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. in the U.S. District courthouse in downtown Richmond.
Fain can be reached by phone at 757-525-1759.
