Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Gov. McDonnell described as aware of gifts from Virginia businessman

September 1, 2013
Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell was aware of gifts and financial help provided by a wealthy Richmond area businessman during the same months the governor and his wife took steps to help his company, according to people familiar with documents and interviews gathered by federal investigators.
For example, McDonnell (R) was present at a charity auction in 2011 when the chief executive of Star Scientific, which makes a dietary supplement, successfully bid on a fashion tour of New York for the governor’s wife in front of a crowd of onlookers, witnesses said.
Separately, the executive, Jonnie R. Williams Sr., flew the governor and his wife on a weekend trip to Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, over Labor Day weekend last year. And Williams repeatedly allowed the governor, his sons and staff to play golf and buy golf gear at elite Richmond area country clubs, running up more than $7,000 on Williams’s tab, according to the documents turned over to authorities.
Each of these newly public examples of Williams’s generosity came on top of more than $150,000 worth of valuables [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/va-gov-mcdonnell-in-close-relationship-with-owner-of-struggling-company/2013/03/30/43f34fb8-97ea-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html ] and money [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/mcdonnells-corporation-wife-benefited-from-120000-more-from-donor-sources-say/2013/07/09/79b29880-e5b4-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html ] The Washington Post has previously reported — gifts that Williams provided to the governor’s family over more than 18 months in 2011 and 2012.
People familiar with accounts that Williams and others have provided to investigators, as well as witnesses interviewed by The Post, say each of those gifts came with the governor’s knowledge — contrasting with an assertion by McDonnell’s attorneys that he was in the dark about the extent of the gifts Williams bestowed on his family.
Attorneys for the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell argued to federal prosecutors [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/attorneys-for-mcdonnells-to-meet-with-prosecutors-as-key-phase-opens-in-probe/2013/08/18/99556812-082c-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html (blurbed in the post to which this is a reply)] two weeks ago that the governor should not be charged with any crimes, in part because of this ignorance, people familiar with the sessions said.
The governor could not have been influenced to improperly help the Star Scientific executive, they asserted, based on gifts he didn’t know about at the time. The couple’s attorneys told prosecutors that Maureen McDonnell worked to hide Williams’s gifts because she feared her husband’s disapproval, the people said.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gov-mcdonnell-described-as-aware-of-gifts-from-virginia-businessman/2013/08/31/f2739284-0f3e-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story.html [with comments]

---

(linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=91032190 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=91425190 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=91559070 and preceding and following