AS CORRUPTION cases go, it might have seemed small beer. In 2014 Bob McDonnell, a former governor of Virginia and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of trading their office for $177,000 in sweetheart loans, gifts and trips from a smooth-talking executive who wanted the state to promote his disputed tobacco-derived dietary product. A federal court jury returned 20 guilty verdicts against the McDonnells. This was upheld the following year in an appellate court.
But in June, a unanimous Supreme Court overturned Mr McDonnell's conviction. It said the Department of Justice could again prosecute the couple, though it sharply narrowed the parameters for doing so. On September 8th, barely three months after the Supreme Court decision, the government gave up, declaring in a 51-word motion to the appeals court that it would not put the McDonnells on trial again.
Mr McDonnell, who had been sentenced to two years in prison but never served a day because he remained free during his appeal, claims he has been vindicated. "I knew in my own heart and my own soul that while I wish I had made some other decisions, that I never violated any state or federal laws," he told the...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2cfkOAA
EmoticonEmoticon