RICHMOND — The jury is set in the federal corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell, and opening arguments are expected Tuesday.
The couple left the courthouse separately after a full day spent winnowing a field of 150 potential jurors to a panel of 12, plus four alternates. A throng of reporters, photographers and cameramen followed the governor and his legal team, but he had little to say.
“Glad we got the jury picked, and looking forward to starting the defense tomorrow,” he said.
As the pack rounded a corner outside the federal courthouse here, Maureen McDonnell was able to leave to less attention.
Jury selection took nearly eight hours Monday. Then, just as the jury seemed set, one woman begged off, citing family concerns. She was replaced with the first alternate, and U.S. District Court Judge James R. Spencer said he plans to give the jury of eight men and four women its detailed instructions Tuesday morning.
He predicted a lengthy trial.
“Pray for the rest of us,” the judge told potential jurors who weren’t chosen. “We need it.”
The former governor and his wife could face decades in prison if convicted on all or most of the 14-count indictment against them. They took more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., a businessman seeking their support for Anatabloc, a tobacco-derived dietary supplement that his company was rolling out to market.
The couple has acknowledged attending Anatabloc events and setting meetings for Williams’ company, Star Scientific, with key state employees, and many of those officials are set to testify in coming weeks. But the McDonnells say that’s where it ended. Star Scientific never got a state contract or hoped-for grant from the state’s tobacco commission, and the McDonnells have pleaded not guilty.
Testimony in the coming weeks promises to be salacious and mundane by turns. The U.S. government has accused the McDonnells of taking Williams’ money and promising to help with his product, but they’re also accused of omitting the loans he gave them from their mortgage application.
Much of the coming testimony promises to center on the details of those transactions.
Williams is said to be the government’s star witness, and he’s been granted immunity, according to court records. The McDonnells have hinted at a defense strategy meant to discredit Williams, who has a checkered business past. They’ve also indicated, in court filings, that Maureen McDonnell’s chief of staff was angling for a side deal with Williams, muddying the waters about who promised what to whom.
Evidence lists made public Monday indicate that the government will dwell on text messages and emails Williams exchanged with both McDonnells over the last few years. Williams and the former governor apparently sent each other text messages after 3 a.m. on March 12, 2012.
That’s the same day MoBo Real Estate, a company McDonnell owned with his sister, deposited a check from Williams for $50,000, according to the government’s evidence list.
The government also promises to trot out the gifts Williams lavished on the McDonnells and their children — golf clubs and golf bags, two iPhones, a Louis Vuitton wallet, Louis Vuitton shoes, an Oscar de la Renta dress. The prosecution’s evidentiary list of gifts alone runs two pages.
The government’s full list of exhibits includes 615 entries.
The McDonnells’ final witness list, also released Monday, includes 121 names. They may not all testify, but the list includes a number of former administration officials, as well as Williams and members of his family.
It also includes former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who received about $18,000 worth of gifts from Williams.
The McDonnells’ children are listed as potential witnesses by both the prosecution and the defense. Among other things, Williams spent $15,000 on catering for a wedding at the governor’s mansion for one of the McDonnell daughters.
Bob and Maureen McDonnell are also listed as witnesses, but it’s too early to say whether they’ll take the stand. They had hoped for separate trials, and Maureen McDonnell’s attorney indicated she would take the stand for her husband in those circumstances.
The judge wouldn’t allow it, ordering them to stand trial together.
Fain can be reached by phone at 757-525-1759.
