Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell found guilty in corruption trial

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted Thursday on multiple counts of public corruption after jurors brushed aside defense protestations that their broken marriage prevented them from conspiring to use political power for financial gain.

The guilty verdicts against Bob McDonnell on 11 corruption charges marked the first criminal conviction of a former governor in the long history of Virginia and led to calls for tougher state laws regulating gifts to public officials.

Both defendants broke down in tears as they listened to the drumbeat of guilty verdicts in the Richmond, Va., courtroom. Several of their grown children also sobbed loudly.

It was an astonishingly quick fall from grace for Bob McDonnell, who had been mentioned as a Republican vice presidential candidate just two years ago.

The jury surprised legal observers by deliberating only two full days after the complex five-week trial. The seven-man, five-woman panel agreed with prosecutors that the McDonnells broke the law by using their influence to help Jonnie R. Williams, a Florida health supplement manufacturer who showered the couple with $177,000 in cash, loans and gifts, including vacations, the use of a boat and a Ferrari, and $25,000 in wedding presents for two of their daughters.

The defense strategy focused on the often embarrassing details of the McDonnells’ troubled marriage, but prosecutors zeroed in on what the governor did in return for the gifts. They noted that McDonnell sent emails to state officials asking them to talk to Williams about his product, in one instance just minutes after McDonnell asked Williams for an extension on a loan. McDonnell also held two promotional events for Williams at the governor’s mansion.

Defense lawyers characterized McDonnell’s efforts as routine and trivial and said that if the conviction was upheld on appeal, the verdict would greatly stretch the definition of what constitutes an official act in return for a bribe.

“I think the business about the broken marriage is going to fade over time, but the part of this case that will be lasting for years to come is this broader conception of ‘official acts,’” said Patrick O’Donnell, a white-collar defense lawyer in Washington, who was not involved in the case. “It’s tough on politicians.... It seems like anything could be an official act now.”

Defense lawyers said little after the verdict but vowed to appeal.

Others said the verdict was proof that Virginia needed to tighten its regulations on gifts to public officials beyond a weak reform measure passed this spring that would not have applied to what the McDonnells accepted.

“This is a serious verdict and a stronger and harder verdict than I think many people expected,” said Deidre Condit, chairwoman of Virginia Commonwealth University’s political science program. “Now that the verdict has been issued, the state legislature would be wise to heed what that indicates.”

Bob McDonnell was acquitted of two counts of financial fraud for allegedly filing false loan applications without revealing his loan obligations to Williams.

Maureen McDonnell, whom the defense portrayed as emotionally unstable and smitten with Williams, was convicted of eight public corruption charges as well as one count of obstruction of justice for trying to conceal evidence of $19,000 in clothes that Williams had bought for her on a New York shopping spree.

Each could spend decades in prison, although the sentences — to be delivered on Jan. 6 — may not be that severe.

According to the Washington Post and other news outlets, Bob McDonnell had turned down an offer from prosecutors to plead guilty to one fraud count, a deal that probably would have avoided any jail time and allowed his wife to go free.

U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer’s instructions to the jury on what constitutes an official act are likely to be the focus of the appeal, lawyers said.

McDonnell, whose political mantra of fiscal responsibility was mocked by prosecutors who showed a financially strapped McDonnell juggling credit card debts and reaching out to Williams for loans, was governor from 2010 until just before his indictment this year. Virginia governors are limited to a single term.

Previously, he served as the state’s attorney general and as a member of the state’s House of Delegates, the lower house.

The convictions are likely to cost him his law license and his state pension for more than two decades of government service.

U.S. Atty. Dana J. Boente said after the verdicts: “This is a difficult and disappointing day for the commonwealth and its citizens.... When public officials turn to financial gain in exchange for official acts, we have no choice but to prosecute them.”

Travis Fain of the Newport News Daily Press contributed to this report.