The federal judge who ran Bob and Maureen McDonnell’s trial on corruption charges has rejected the former governor’s bid to overturn his conviction or to at least get a new trial.
But U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer did overturn Maureen McDonnell’s conviction on a charge of obstructing justice, while letting eight other counts stand.
The former governor said his conviction on charges that he performed official acts in return for the $177,000 in gifts and loans that businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. gave him and members of his family should be overturned because he didn’t really do anything for Williams.
McDonnell also argued that Spencer’s instructions to the jury wrongly described what official acts were – some of the charges on which he was convicted accused him of performing official acts in return for the gifts and loans – and that the judge did not take seriously enough signs that jury did not impartially weigh all the evidence in the case.
“McDonnell harps on the argument that ‘vague expectations of some future benefit’ are ‘not sufficient to make a payment a bribe’ ….McDonnell’s contentions, however, miss the mark,” Spencer ruled. “The government provided substantial evidence for the jury to conclude that McDonnell knew what Williams was seeking.”
Spencer said the 99-item questionnaire prospective jurors had to fill out, as well as his questioning of the lawyers, did not show jurors were unduly influenced by reports about the charges. He rejected McDonnell’s allegation that comments from a juror Spencer had to dismiss for violating a court order about talking about the case showed that the jury was improperly deliberating before all the evidence was in.
Spencer also rejected McDonnell’s arguments that his conviction on charges that he denied the people of Virginia his honest services as governor was based on a law that was too vague.
He brushed off McDonnell’s argument that prosecutors violated the proper division between federal and state authority, commenting that “Virginia law does not necessarily ‘decriminalize’ the conduct for which McDonnell was convicted.”
Maureen McDonnell, in addition to joining her husband in those challenges, also argued that she couldn’t be convicted of corruptly performing an official act since was not an official. The judge rejected that as well.
Spencer did agree with her that that she should not have been convicted of obstructing justice when she returned a box of clothing Williams had given her after federal officials began investigating Williams’ gifts to the family. Federal prosecutors said that the note she wrote to accompany the box was intended to mislead them and a grand jury into thinking she and Williams had previously agreed the clothing was to be returned.
“Although Mrs. McDonnell may have hoped that the misleading note would be provided to the future grand jury, there is insufficient evidence to enable a rational trier of fact to conclude that Mrs. McDonnell knew this would happen,” Spencer wrote.
Ress can be reached by telephone at 757-247-4535.
