McDonnells’ strained family relationships put in spotlight at ex-governor’s sentencing
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Version 0 of 1. RICHMOND — She came into the courtroom with a son on each arm, squired down the center aisle in a ruffled gray suit like an oddly sorrowful mother of the bride. Former first lady Maureen McDonnell sat in the gallery this time, instead of a defense table adjacent to her husband’s. Convicted of corruption alongside former governor Robert F. McDonnell in September, she will not be sentenced until next month. So she did not have to be in court. Nor was she overtly welcomed by all the gathered relatives; some of them blame her for husband’s downfall. Her surprise appearance once again thrust the McDonnells’ strained family relationships into the center of the courtroom drama. If the light two-year sentence that Robert McDonnell received was the top shocker of the day, Maureen McDonnell’s appearance in the courthouse ranked a close second. Her defense attorney, watching the proceedings from an overflow courtroom, appeared surprised to hear from a reporter that his client had shown up. During the trial, attorneys for both Robert and Maureen McDonnell had put the blame squarely on her. Portraying the first lady as lonely and perhaps mentally ill, attorneys suggested that she had fallen prey to a slick entrepreneur who showered the family with $177,000 in luxury clothes, vacations and sweetheart loans. The governor said their marriage was so broken that they were barely communicating, much less conspiring to take the gifts in exchange for promoting the businessman’s nutritional supplement. Robert McDonnell moved out of the couple’s Richmond-area home shortly before the trial, and they have continued to live apart. In a letter to the federal judge who would be sentencing Robert McDonnell, the couple’s eldest daughter, Jeanine McDonnell Zubowsky, blamed the fiasco on her mother’s materialism, mental-health issues and interest in “freebees.” Maureen McDonnell’s appearance in court Tuesday did not, on its own, suggest that the family woes aired during the trial had healed. Painful estrangement remained on vivid display. Zubowsky, pregnant with the couple’s first grandchild, sat at one end of a courtroom bench reserved for family. Maureen McDonnell, who was not invited to her daughter’s recent baby shower, sat toward the other end. They did not appear to interact. After the sentencing, Robert McDonnell gave his children long, tearful hugs. Maureen McDonnell got a quick peck on the cheek. She exited the federal courthouse with the rest of the family. But she was nowhere to be seen moments later, when Robert McDonnell addressed reporters from a lectern, surrounded by his children and defense team. She got the briefest of mentions as the former governor addressed reporters: “This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for my children, my wife, my brothers, my sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces.” Maureen McDonnell, like other relatives, cried occasionally during the sentencing. Her sons and another daughter, Cailin Young, comforted her at times. Another, somewhat surprising ally emerged in the form of U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer. He signaled that he’d had enough with the blame-Maureen defense, a strategy that he said showed a lack of contrition on the governor’s part. “While Mrs. McDonnell may have allowed the serpent into the mansion, the governor knowingly let him into his personal and business affairs,” Spencer said. Spencer said that those who believed Maureen McDonnell had “roped the governor into this predicament” were “dangerously delusional.” Asked whether the leniency for Robert McDonnell would influence the way prosecutors approached Maureen McDonnell’s sentencing, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente would say only, “We’ll make our pleadings in public.” “The sentence was unusually lenient for this type of white-collar offense,” said Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, a prominent white-collar criminal lawyer at the firm Arnall Golden Gregory. “The issue is whether the court would sentence McDonnell’s wife to a lengthier sentence even though McDonnell was the governor. It would be highly unusual for the wife to receive a harsher sentence.” The former governor also put in a good word for his wife in brief remarks to the judge: “I ask that whatever mercy you might have, you grant it first to my wife, Maureen.” Aside from the family drama, the big star of the day was former Virginia governor L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat who managed to see eye to eye with McDonnell on some issues. Not five minutes after taking the stand, Wilder managed to elicit laughs from the somber courtroom — even from Robert and Maureen McDonnell — by correcting a slight mistake by defense attorney John Brownlee. Reviewing Wilder’s biography as he introduced the witness, Brownlee recalled that Wilder was a Korean War combat veteran who had been awarded the Silver Star. “The lieutenant I turned the prisoners over to got the Silver Star,” Wilder said. “I got the Bronze Star.” Of the 11 character witnesses put on the stand, Wilder was the only one prosecutors felt the need to cross-examine. And he was the only one to earn applause from the courtroom audience — twice. Wilder praised McDonnell’s military service and his willingness to work across the aisle on certain issues. He said McDonnell had already suffered enough given that he had plummeted from potential presidential contender to felon. Without the scandal, Wilder said, McDonnell “would not be on anyone’s shortlist for vice president. He’d be on the shortlist for president. Without question, he would have been ranked one of the best governors Virginia’s ever had.” On cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Dry asked Wilder whether it wasn’t true that any elected officials convicted of corruption would be punished because of the damage to his or her reputation. Wilder readily agreed. Dry then asked whether giving elected officials a break on their sentences would increase cynicism among voters. And Wilder noted that Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the former Star Scientific chief who showered gifts on the McDonnells, had gone free. “When you look at the progenitor of the bribe, this person who actually started everything walks away clean,” Wilder said. McDonnell’s supporters burst into applause. They did so again after Wilder wrapped up by asking the judge to show McDonnell mercy. Rachel Weiner, Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report. Read more: Tuesday’s sentencing liveblog The gifts McDonnell received from Jonnie Williams Timeline: The McDonnell corruption trial He said, he said: Bob McDonnell vs. Jonnie Williams |