Speaking of amateurs, Virginia's former Repub Gov Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen are on trial in federal court for accepting $$$ and gifts, including a $16,000 Rolex men's watch, and not reporting them. Their trial began Monday with jury selection and got down to business yesterday. It quickly became obvious the game plan of the McDonnell's defense was to save the governor from jail time by painting Maureen McDonnell as a 16-year-old girl who in her attorney's opening statement yesterday said she was lonely because the governor traveled extensively and the couple was having marriage and financial problems so she developed a "crush" (her attorney's word) on VA businessman CEO Jonnie Williams - the guy who lavished both the governor and Maureen McDonnell with expensive gifts, including paying part of their daughter's expensive wedding. Since Maureen McDonnell is not a government official, if her attorney can convince the jury it was all Maureen's fault, "innocent" Bob - who btw never asked his wife Maureen how she could afford to buy him a $16,000 Rolex watch - cannot possibly be guilty of knowingly taking gifts and not reporting them, and he'll be spared jail time.
Wife thrown under the bus? Hardly! it's the agreed-upon game plan of Bob and Maureen McDonnell. Will the jury buy the ruse? Time will tell.
As in many trials, there is collateral damage - yesterday the McDonnell's daughter whose expensive wedding cited in the trial said she did not know her parents were accepting expensive gifts from VA businessman Jonnie Williams and said "there is now a cloud over my wedding".
Yet to be heard from in this trial is VA's former Repub AG in Bob McDonnell's admin, Ken Cuccinelli - he too accepted expensive gifts from Jonnie Williams and did not report them until the FBI came knocking.
