Posted on 01/22/2014 11:04:31 AM PST by iowamark
Earlier this month, Bob McDonnell became former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. On Tuesday, he became indicted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Just days after he left office, the Republican and and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were charged in federal court with more than a dozen counts related to the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans they accepted from a wealthy Virginia businessman. (The ex-governor maintained on Tuesday that he had done nothing illegal.)
The fact that the McDonnells were under scrutiny from prosecutors was no secret. Stories about the investigation, and the relationship between the McDonnells and the businessman, Jonnie Williams, had been appearing in the press for months. We knew (thanks in large part to stellar reporting from The Washington Post) about the Rolex, and the Oscar de la Renta dress, and the Ferrari joyride, and the golf outings. But the 43-page indictment filed on Tuesday did reveal numerous new details about the scandal, and confirmed several other points which had been fuzzy or in dispute.
Here are the highlights:
1. It All Started With An Inauguration Dress
According to the indictment, Bob McDonnell and Williams, the now-former CEO of an embattled dietary supplements company called Star Scientific, had never met before McDonnell began running for governor -- and they only met in 2009 after McDonnell's staff asked Williams if they could use his private plane for the campaign.
It didn't take long for more favors to pile up. In December 2009, after a successful Election Day, the McDonnells allegedly met with Williams at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City. Bob McDonnell was in town for a political event. During their meeting, Maureen McDonnell asked Williams for help finding a designer dress to wear at her husband's upcoming inauguration. One of Bob McDonnell's senior aides soon raised concerns about the idea of Williams buying Maureen McDonnell a dress -- which set her off.
"I need to talk to you about Inaugural clothing budget," Maureen McDonnell wrote in an email to the aide on Dec. 21, 2009. "I need answers and Bob is screaming about the thousands I'm charging up in credit card debt. We are broke, have an unconscionable amount in credit card debt already, and this Inaugural is killing us!! I need answers and I need help, and I need to get this done."
Later, Maureen McDonnell told Williams she would take a "rain check" on the dress.
2. The McDonnells Were Deeply In Debt
If the email from Maureen McDonnell doesn't make it clear, the rest of the indictment does: the McDonnells were struggling financially when they moved into Virginia's Executive Mansion.
As has been previously reported, Bob McDonnell and his sister co-owned a small real estate company company called MoBo, which owned and rented out a couple of homes in Virginia Beach, Va. According to the indictment, the properties needed "capital infusions of up to $60,000 annually to meet mortgage payments and other expenses." The McDonnells turned to friends and family for loans to make up the money. They thought about selling, but the property values were falling.
In early May 2011, Maureen McDonnell and Williams meet privately at the Executive Mansion. According to the indictment, she told Williams that she and her husband "were having severe financial difficulties" and did not know how they would pay for their daughter's upcoming wedding expenses. She asked Williams for a $50,000 loan, as well as a $15,000 to pay the remaining catering costs for the wedding. According to the indictment, Maureen wasn't just asking for a handout.
"[Maureen McDonnell] also told [Williams] that she could help Star Scientific but that she needed [Williams'] financial assistance," the indictment states.
The McDonnells money trouble connected to the rental houses appears to have continued for much of Bob McDonnell's time as governor. On Feb. 10, 2013, McDonnell sent an email to his five children, and copied Maureen.
"Kids," he wrote. "Asking for help. need to rent the beach houses at Sandbridge more. Willing to give your friends a discount for the times it's tougher to rent."
3. Bob McDonnell Allegedly Knew About The First Big Loan From Williams
A big lingering question in the scandal was just how much Bob McDonnell had known about the $120,000 in total payments that Williams made to him and his family in 2011 and 2012. In October, a private spokesperson for McDonnell said the Republican had not been aware of the first $50,000 payment, made in May 2011, until "after the funds had been spent."
The indictment offers a different version of events, one that Williams reportedly gave to federal investigators. According to the document, Williams spoke with Bob McDonnell before making the first loan, and McDonnell told Williams about "the defendants' financial difficulties." Williams allegedly agreed to provide the first $50,000 with a two-year term at five percent interest. He also informed McDonnell that loan paperwork wouldn't be necessary.
4. But Some Of Williams' Help May Have Come As A Surprise
On Jan. 25, 2012, Bob McDonnell got an email from his brother-in-law, who was helping to manage the rental properties.
"For MoBo, I talked with [Maureen] last week and she had me talk to the guy who is helping us," the brother-in-law wrote. "He said he was going to call me the next day to get an address so he could send the first check. I did not hear from him and I left [Maureen] a message yesterday. We'll need to get that in the next week so we can keep up-to-date."
Two days later, Bob forwarded that email to Maureen.
"Maureen who are we talking about that is helping us and talking to [the brother-in-law]?? [Williams]?" he wrote.
Maureen replied the same day.
"Just got home. I'll talk w u upstairs." she wrote
On March 6, Williams had an assistant write out a check to MoBo for $50,000. The loan, which was not documented, allegedly included a two percent interest rate and a three-year term.
5. Bob McDonnell Asked For $20,000 Via A Text Message
The indictment contains documentation of McDonnell allegedly asking Williams for money.
"Per voicemail would like to see if you could extend another 20k loan for this year," McDonnell texted to Williams on May 18, 2012." Call if possible and I'll ask [the brother-in-law] to send instructions."
Williams responded, also by text: "Done, tell me who to make it out to and address. Will FedEx."
6. People Discussed Using Virginia Employees As Dietary Guinea Pigs
This is perhaps the craziest idea contained in the indictment. In August 2011, following an email from Bob McDonnell to Virginia's secretary of health, Maureen McDonnell met at the Executive Mansion with Williams and one of the secretary's senior policy advisors. At that meeting, according to the indictment, Williams discussed the idea of having Virginia government employees use Anatabloc, Star Scientific's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, "as a control group for research studies."
This wasn't the only time this kind of idea came up. In October 2011, according to the indictment, Maureen McDonnell accompanied Williams and a research scientist who consulted for Star Scientific to a company event in Grand Blanc, Mich. They took Williams' private plane, and during the flights there and back, they discussed the potential health benefits of Anatabloc, the company's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, and the need for clinical studies. The scientist later emailed Maureen McDonnell a summary of their discussions. In it, he suggested it might be useful "to perform a study of Virginia government employees… to determine the prevalences [sic] of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions."
7. Bob McDonnell Told Virginia Officials That He Took Anatabloc
On March 21, 2012, Bob McDonnell met with Virginia's secretary of administration and one of the secretary's aides, to talk about the state's employee health plan, and ways to reduce costs. At that meeting, McDonnell pulled some Anatabloc out of his pocket. He allegedly told the secretary that Anatabloc had beneficial health effects, and that he was taking it, and that it was working well for him.
McDonnell allegedly suggested that they reach out to the "Anatabloc people."
8. Maureen McDonnell Allegedly Lied To Law Enforcement
The indictment contains a number of examples of Maureen McDonnell allegedly trying to cover her tracks. One of the more overt instances took place in February 2013, when Maureen was interviewed by law enforcement officials about the money Williams had given the McDonnells in 2011.
According to the indictment, Maureen McDonnell "falsely claimed that there was a loan agreement that she had signed and that she was making periodic payments on the $50,000 loan." She also "falsely claimed that [Bob McDonnell] had met [Williams] 'many years ago.'"
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You seriously think corrupt politicians are okay, so long as they have the coveted (R) after their names? That’s hardly a conservative position.
I expect that kind of hypocrisy from liberals, but hold us up to a slightly higher standard.
I think all crooked pols should go to jail - even the Republican ones. I expect better from someone who claims to be a conservative.
It’s also good politics - if Cuccinelli had come our and condemned McDonnell when the full charges were made public, maybe he could actually have beaten Sleazy McInsider and he’d be the governor now.
He’s guilty of getting a loan. This indictment is BS. Like some posters around here.
His wife looks and sounds like a nut job . Being from Arkansas I have experience with nut job governor’s wives aka Hillary Clinton aka Bill Clinton’s power hungry/money hungry coattail who couldn’t run a whore house for profit (or a lemonade stand like most (all) Democrat politicians can’t).
McAuliffe among investors in Rhode Island insurance scam that preyed on dying people
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) was one of dozens of investors with a Rhode Island estate planner charged with defrauding insurers by using the stolen identities of terminally ill people, according to court documents filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors in Providence.
McAuliffe’s name appeared on a lengthy list of investors with Joseph A. Caramadre, an attorney and accountant who obtained the identities of dying people to set up annuities that ultimately cost insurance companies millions of dollars, the documents say.
McAuliffe has been the subject of federal investigations into questionable business deals and real estate ventures, illegal fundraising, and campaign finance abuses. One case involved a lease with a government agency for which McAuliffe’s firm may have illegally received a $375,000 contingency fee. McAuliffe was also involved in a 1997 money-laundering scandal with the group Citizen Action.
Another storm of scandal to recently swirl around McAuliffe involved the extraordinary $18 million windfall he pocketed from his investments in the telecommunications company Global Crossing (GC). In just eighteen months, McAuliffe’s $100,000 initial investment in the company grew to $18 million. Moreover, the New York Times reports that McAuliffe earned yet additional millions from trading the stock and options after the company went public in 1998. Press reports indicate that McAuliffe also did “political work” for Global Crossing CEO Gary Winnick, and even arranged a golf outing for Winnick with then-President Bill Clinton. Winnick would later contribute $1 million to Clinton’s presidential library. Shortly after Winnick made this contribution, the Pentagon awarded Global Crossing a $400 million contract. Moreover, GC soon became the Democratic Party’s biggest corporate donor. The appearance of impropriety in this chain of events is unmistakable.
The Bush administration eventually cancelled the Pentagon deal when it learned of irregularities in the bidding process, which were detailed in separate complaints filed by those who had lost the bidding war. At that point, Global Crossing’s stock price plummeted immediately. In summation, this was a case where GC had artificially inflated its stock price, allowing its executives – and Terry McAuliffe – to reap enormous profits during the year preceding GC’s filing for bankruptcy – while employees lost their 401(k) retirement plans and their life’s savings.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1084
McAuliffe fundraised for Hillary Clinton and once gave her a $1.5 million loan for a house.
McAuliffe recently bragged that 72% of his campaign contributors are Virginians. It was a lie. Campaign finance reports show nearly $4 of every $5 McAuliffe raised actually came from outside Virginia.
He is opposed to coal and will kill the Viginia coal industry, costing them money and jobs. He came out with a firm position in support of Mr. Obama’s war on coal. In 2009, when he ran for Governor, he said he ‘never wants another coal plant built.’ The Washington Post reported that he supports the EPA rules on carbon emissions.
While touring Tyson’s Corner technology firm MicroTech, McAuliffe, who only reluctantly gives away his true views, avoided questions about the coal industry and the EPA rules until a reporter pressed him. When he was asked if he supported the guidelines ‘as they are written right now,’ McAuliffe said, ‘I do, you bet. What I’ve looked at, I support what we need to do to obviously protect our air and our water.’
In 1997, when he was being probed by the Department of Labor and the US Attorney’s office for sweetheart deals he received, he said, “I’m honest as the day is long,” McAuliffe said in response to the accusations. “The worst thing I’ve ever gotten is a speeding ticket.”
Is that true?
McAuliffe sold $8 million worth of stock in a Bermuda-based telecom company before it went bankrupt while other investors lost $54 billion.
Nothing suspicious there!
He runs around with the elite, making deals and loads of money through mysterious investments and machinations. He is an expert at leveraging political favors through business connections, and leveraging business favors through political connections.
He founded a bank that loaned money to politicians and when the bank was discovered to be engaging in unsound business practices in 1991, he merged the bank with another and became the vice chairman of the new entity.
When his business partner and father-in-law Jack Swann’s bank was seized by the feds, he got an IBEW pension fund to buy up the bank’s $38 million in real estate holdings, receiving a 50% equity stake for $100.
The women plan to come out in droves for him because they are afraid of Cuccinelli’s views as portrayed by McAuliffe. Maybe they should listen to some of the other things McAuliffe has said concerning women. McAuliffe told the late writer Marjorie Williams for a profile in Vanity Fair that his wife ‘has no idea’ how much money he has, and he implied she doesn’t need to know: ‘She’s got a great life. Listen, her credit cards are paid and all that. She knows I do very well.’
McAuliffe is an anti-Catholic Catholic.
Back in 2003, Catholic League President William Donohue condemned then-DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe for refusing to break his ties with anti-Catholic bigotry. Donohue said that the DNC still maintained a link on its website to a professed anti-Catholic organization, Kissling’s Catholics for a Free Choice (CCFC). McAuliffe had no remorse or any intention of disassociating from Catholic bashing according to Donohue.
As it turned out, he never did.
Kissling’s group is a hate group.
In 2004, McAuliffe announced the appointment of Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson as the Senior Advisor for Religious Outreach; she is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and she also wants the words ‘under God’ removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.
During the 2004 presidential election, according to Ralph Nader, McAuliffe made a deal with him. Nader had to ‘stay out of 19 states which are close between Kerry and Bush,’ and he – McAuliffe – would ‘provide resources’ to Nader in the remaining 31 states. Nader made the deal but kept it to himself until after the election.
McAuliffe is a political mercenary.
Talking Points Memo broke the story that McAuliffe’s campaign received $120,000 from a company linked to an African warlord – Liberian president Charles Taylor. The Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry donated to McAuliffe twice within the past 12 months.
What could possibly go wrong with Liberian dictators helping to choose the next governor of the great state of Virginia?
New York nanny Michael Bloomberg might feel the camaraderie over their shared New York heritage because he gave over a million dollars to McAuliffe’s campaign.
http://www.independentsentinel.com/terry-mcauliffe-do-you-believe-how-bad-this-guy-is/
BUSINESS WEEK, DECEMBER 22, 1997: The U. S. Attorney’s Office in Washington is trying to learn more about how McAuliffe earned a lucrative fee in helping Prudential Insurance Co. of America lease a downtown Washington building to the government. Prudential just settled a civil case involving that lease for over $300,000 without admitting any liability .... The Labor Dept. is probing McAuliffe real estate deals that were bankrolled by a union pension fund .... And Labor Dept. probers are looking at possible conflicts of interest in at least two of McAuliffe’s Florida real estate deals that were bankrolled by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers pension money. Investigators want to know why McAuliffe got what look like very sweet deals.
1999
WALL STREET JOURNAL: In his defense of the [Clinton house] loan, Mr. McAuliffe asks: What can Bill Clinton do for me? For starters, he could make it tough for the U.S. Attorney’s office to get to the bottom of Mr. McAuliffe’s oft-denied role in the sleazy 1996 “contributions swap” between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Teamsters union .... What Terry McAuliffe did in essence is make a contribution to Hillary’s campaign. Its whole purpose is to enable her to establish residence in New York, thus the money is absolutely essential to her campaign .... In the Hillary race, no McAuliffe “loan,” no residency, no campaign. His contribution would seem to be more than $1,000.
AND THERE’S THE LITTLE MATTER reported by John McCaslin in the Washington Times: Chapter 5 of the Federal Elections Commission’s guide for candidates states: “An endorsement or guarantee of a bank loan is considered a contribution by the endorser or guarantor and is thus subject to the law’s prohibitions and limits on contributions.”
NEW YORK TIMES: A former Democratic official has testified that Terence McAuliffe, President Clinton’s friend and chief fund-raiser, played a major role in promoting an illegal scheme in which Democratic donors were to contribute to the Teamster president’s re-election campaign, and in exchange the Teamsters were to donate large sums to the Democrats. The official, Richard Sullivan, the Democratic National Committee’s former finance director, testified in Manhattan at the trial of William Hamilton, the Teamsters former political director, that McAuliffe urged him and other fund-raisers to find a rich Democrat to donate at least $50,000 to the 1996 re-election campaign of Ron Carey, the former Teamsters president. During the three-week-long trial, Sullivan testified that McAuliffe had said that if a Democratic donor made a large contribution to the Carey campaign, then the Teamsters would contribute at least $500,000 to various Democratic Party committees . . . McAuliffe’s lawyer, Richard Ben-Veniste, said his client had done nothing wrong.
DRUDGE REPORT - Enron-stung GOPers are discreetly eyeing the collapse of Global Crossing [which became the 4th largest bankruptcy in history] and its Chairman Gary Winnick, a top Democrat donor who helped DNC head Terry McAuliffe turn a $100,000 stock investment - into $18,000,000. McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton in 1999 after his cash windfall. Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton’s presidential library . . . “McAuliffe is a guy who made millions and millions and millions off this Global Crossing stock? And the company goes bankrupt. And he has the gonads to criticize anyone on Enron,” blasted [a] Bush insider who asked not to be identified . . . For McAuliffe, Global Crossing turned out to be a bonanza. The stock had soared in the late 90s, when Winnick once bragged that he was the “richest man in Los Angeles.” McAuliffe operated out of an office in downtown Washington that belonged to Winnick - to help the mogul “work on deals.” McAuliffe told the NY Times’ Jeff Gerth in late ‘99 that his initial $100,000 investment grew to be worth about $18 million, and he made millions more trading Global’s stock and options after it went public in ‘98.
WORTH MAGAZINE - In 1995, Cincinnati billionaire Carl Lindner, whom McAuliffe had successfully courted as a donor, put up money for McAuliffe to buy American Heritage Homes, then the second-largest home builder in Florida. And in 1997, Los Angeles businessman Gary Winnick, also a Democratic donor, gave McAuliffe an early opportunity to invest $100,000 in Winnick’s new company, Global Crossing, an owner and operator of undersea fiber-optic cables. When the stock subsequently soared, McAuliffe made a reported $18 million from that $100,000 investment. Two years later, McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton, and Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton’s presidential library. So it went in the 1990s: McAuliffe was helping the rich and powerful gain access to Bill Clinton, and everyone was making money. Anyone who suggested that there was something inappropriate about all the back-scratching-something that reeked of access peddling-only sounded like a spoilsport. With the stock market boom and the Internet gold rush and the whole country making money, why not join the party?
PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - [From a list of presidential pardons] Alvarez Ferrouillet - laundering money to cover loan for congressional campaign of Mike Espy’s brother. Espy was Clinton’s agriculture secretary; petition was pushed by Clinton pal Terry McAuliffe.
http://prorev.com/mcauliffe.htm
Clinton’s Home Loan Deal Raises Questions
Fund-raiser and friend Terry McAuliffe, with the first family in Syracuse on Thursday, guaranteed the mortgage on the Clintons’ new New York home. (AP)
Saturday, September 4, 1999;
After President Clinton and fund-raiser extraordinaire Terry McAuliffe played a round of golf in upstate New York on Tuesday, the president made an unscheduled visit to St. Camillus Nursing Home to visit McAuliffe’s ailing 79-year-old mother, Millie, who recently had hip replacement surgery.
Later in the week, McAuliffe returned the favor – and then some. When former White House chief of staff Erskine B. Bowles at the last minute balked at guaranteeing a $1.35 million mortgage for the Clintons’ new house in Chappaqua, N.Y., McAuliffe rode to the president’s rescue.
In a move that enables the Clintons to buy the house – and Hillary Rodham Clinton to have a base for her New York Senate run – the 42-year-old real estate developer and dealmaker pledged to put up $1.35 million in cash to secure a mortgage for the Clintons. Otherwise, swamped by more than $5 million in legal debts, the Clintons might have had difficulty obtaining the loan for the five-bedroom, century-old house.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/keyraces2000/stories/house090499.htm
Of course, our guys always play nice-nice when they’re in charge at DOJ.
Wow...... did I strike a nerve!
Do you know what’s worse?
As Governor of Virginia he has the credential to succeed Hillary as President!
How ‘bout them apples?
I know - he’s scummy beyond belief. Almost a parody of the dirty political insider. It’s a disgrace that he is a free man, let alone that he holds a position of public trust.
Imagine what could have been had we run a better campaign.
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