A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen on charges of illegally accepting gifts from a Richmond businessman allegedly willing to foot the McDonnells’ checks in exchange for political patronage.
A federal probe into the relationship between the McDonnells and Jonnie Williams Sr., the former CEO of Star Scientific, cast a shadow over the last months of McDonnell’s term. Now, the political power pair face, between them, 14 felony counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to obtain property.
McDonnell, with a yearly salary of $175,000, was one of the five best-paid governors in the U.S. But the Republican who ran under the slogan “Bob’s for Jobs” had financial troubles severe enough to lead him and his wife to accept roughly $140,000 in loans and personal gifts from Williams.
The 43-page indictment against the McDonnells brims with lurid details. The grand jury records extracts from desperate emails, such as Maureen McDonnell’s confession to a senior staff member that “Bob is screaming about the thousands I’m charging up in credit card debt … We are broke … I need answers and I need help.” It also recounts glimmers of excess: the golf games, the designer dresses, the silver Rolex engraved with “71st Governor of Virginia,” all on Williams’ dime. Virginia’s first couple, it seems, spent years careening between debt and decadence.
Because of its Gatsby-esque tenor, the report describing the McDonnells’ alleged misdeeds has attracted a level of online attention that’s unusual for a legal document. Cue articles such as Talking Point Memo’s “The Eight Juiciest Revelations From The Bob McDonnell Indictment.”
The response from McDonnell’s lawyers, filed hours after the indictment, is written in even more colorful language. The motion starts at a melodramatic pitch: “Bob McDonnell is an innocent man … The federal government’s decision to use these deceitful tactics in order to prosecute a popular and successful Republican Governor immediately upon his leaving office is disgraceful, violates basic principles of justice, and is contemptuous of the citizens of Virginia.” In an admirable show of restraint, McDonnell’s attorneys wait until the brief’s second page to compare the federal government to the (notoriously bloodthirsty and sex-crazed) Roman emperor Caligula. (We wish we were joking.)
What’s alarming about the McDonnell team’s motion is that its central argument holds that the former governor’s behavior is nothing out of the ordinary. McDonnell’s actions are “routine political conduct,” the attorneys assert. They write: “Politics is replete with examples of major benefactors receiving more substantial government benefits than anything suggested here.”
If McDonnell’s relationship with Williams is “routine”, the need for ethics reform in Virginia is dire indeed. The attorneys excuse McDonnell’s behavior by saying it’s within the status quo. The better conclusion — if we buy the hard-to-swallow claim that McDonnell’s gifts are part of standard politicking — is that “routine” is unacceptable.
Corruption has perhaps forever been a part of politics. What’s been compelling about the McDonnell saga, however, is that the former governor doesn’t seem like all that bad of a guy. The father of five, whose name was once tossed around as a possible presidential contender, has governed as a placid, pro-business conservative — a far cry from the social extremism or the barbed partisanship that characterizes former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli or the Tea Party leaders. What steps led McDonnell to face charges that might land him a prison sentence or more than a million in fines?
One major culprit appears to be conspicuous consumption. Whether it was the pressure of the public eye — or just vanity — Maureen McDonnell felt as if she had to wear designer gowns for high-profile events such as her husband’s inauguration, emails quoted in the indictment suggest. The couple also requested a significant sum from Williams to pay for their daughter’s wedding.
Another possibility is that politics, especially campaigning, can be ruinously expensive. If running for office costs millions of dollars, does that make public leaders vulnerable or beholden to business interests from their first day on the campaign trail?
Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s second executive order, signed the day after his inauguration, capped gifts to himself and the executive branch at $100. The order also allocated $100,000 in start-up funds for an ethics commission. McAuliffe’s gestures are a promising start. But they’re not enough. The General Assembly, which reached a bipartisan agreement on an ethics bill this month, ought to tighten ethics and gift laws as quickly as possible. Currently officeholders in Virginia can accept unlimited gifts, as long as gifts over $50 are reported. We suggest banning gifts of over $50 or $100 altogether.
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