“The ongoing federal investigation of Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen — the scandal dubbed by political wags as “Giftgate” — entered a critical phase last week, both for the governor and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

McDonnell scrum

Looks like Jonnie Williams won’t be getting a Christmas card from the McDonnells this year. –TPM

Yet more revelations last weekend in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, our sister newspaper, and The Washington Post emerged in the scandal over gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the governor and his family from a well-heeled businessman with a dubious product to sell.

“You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say,
and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”

The Times-Dispatch reported Aug. 17 that Mrs. McDonnell purchased $30,000 worth of stock in Star Scientific, using part of a $50,000 “loan” from company CEO Jonnie Williams Sr. Six months later, in December 2011, she sold it at a 50 percent loss; one month after that, she bought another $15,000 worth of company stock … with more borrowed money. And all without telling her husband a thing.

Then, The Post reported in its Aug. 18 edition that the McDonnells’ lawyers would be meeting — separately, we might add — with federal prosecutors last Monday. Bluntly put, the meetings were the McDonnells’ attempts to convince prosecutors they’ve done nothing criminally wrong for which they should be indicted.Enough is enough..”

via NewsAdvance.com