It turns out former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell may just need all that support he was begging for, since he and his wife are now facing federal charges for those special gifts he received:
The two were charged in connection with their relationship with dietary supplement executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr.
Authorities alleged McDonnell and his wife received gifts from Williams again and again, lodging near constant requests for money, clothes, trips, golf accessories and private plane rides.
In exchange, they alleged the McDonnells worked in concert to lend the prestige of the governorship to Williams’s struggling company, a small former cigarette manufacturer that now sells dietary supplements.
Update: The Washington Post article has now been expanded to review what led to the charges. It always starts with the mundane when it comes to Republicans.
The governor’s career began to quietly fray more than a year ago in the most mundane of ways: a tip to a state fraud hotline alleging that the chef at the state’s 200-year old executive mansion was pilfering food from the kitchen.
When questioned by authorities, the chef quickly offered up information about potentially far more serious wrongdoing in the mansion.
In March 2012, chef Todd Schneider handed over documents that showed Williams paid $15,000 for the catering at the 2011 wedding of McDonnell’s daughter. McDonnell had not disclosed the gift, later saying there was no need because the money was a wedding present to his daughter and state law requires only elected officials, not their family members, to annually disclose gifts.
Update 2: The indictment is here, via TPM.
