LARRY O’DELL
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The key prosecution witness in former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s trial testified Monday that he never saw any signs the governor’s marriage was crumbling, and that he never had any intimate physical contact with the first lady.
A prosecutor asked Jonnie Williams about Bob and Maureen McDonnell’s marriage to counter a defense attorney’s assertion last week that the first lady, feeling neglected by her frequently absent husband, had developed a crush on Williams and that he had led her on.
“I didn’t know she had any interest in me until this past week,” Williams sheepishly said on the stand.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Dry asked specifically whether Williams and Maureen McDonnell had any intimate contact.
“I never had any contact with Mrs. McDonnell — no physical contact, period,” he said.
Williams also said Maureen McDonnell never told him her marriage was on the rocks, and he saw no signs that it was. To further make the point, the prosecution showed two photos of the McDonnells at public events. They were holding hands in one, and Bob McDonnell was kissing his wife on the cheek in the other.
The McDonnells are charged with accepting more than $165,000 in gifts and loans from Williams, the former CEO of dietary supplements maker Star Scientific Inc., in exchange for helping promote his company’s products. They could face decades in prison if convicted.
Williams testified under immunity, starting Wednesday afternoon and concluding at lunchtime Monday.
Bob McDonnell’s attorney, Henry Asbill, questioned Williams about his immunity agreement. He reminded Williams that he testified that a company’s first responsibility is to stay in business.
“Would you agree the second rule of business is not to go to jail?” Asbill asked.
Williams, who has said repeatedly that he has done wrong, replied: “I don’t think any businessman wants to go to jail.”
Asbill, attempting to undermine Williams’ credibility, questioned Williams about lawsuits he and Star faced over allegations of securities violations. Williams said he thought most of the half-dozen “nuisance suits” by Star shareholders had been settled or soon would be, but Asbill noted that two were put on hold at the request of prosecutors in the McDonnell case.
Defense attorneys last week noted that Williams and Maureen McDonnell had exchanged text messages and phone calls more than 1,200 times in less than two years, suggesting that the relationship between Williams and the McDonnells was not strictly business as Williams has said. Dry put that number in context, though, by mentioning Monday that during the same period Williams made or received about 109,000 calls and texts.
“I’m a busy man,” Williams said.
Asbill asked Williams whether having the governor call the businessman’s father on his 80th birthday was business or personal. Williams said it was personal, but it wouldn’t have been possible without his spending on the McDonnells.
“This cost me, in my mind, hundreds of thousands of dollars even to be able to do that,” he said.
Asbill pursued a line of questioning aimed at pinning most of the requests for gifts and loans on Maureen McDonnell and suggesting that the governor did little, if anything, for Williams in return. Williams acknowledged that his company received no state grants, which is what he was after.
But he pointed to a gathering of health care leaders at the governor’s mansion, where Williams was permitted to invite anyone he wanted for a discussion about Star’s signature product, Anatabloc.
“That was a very significant evening, to have that sort of thing happen for my company,” he said.
Among the gifts Bob McDonnell received was a Rolex watch purchased by Williams and given to the governor by his wife for Christmas 2012. Williams received a text message that Christmas Eve with a photo of a smiling McDonnell showing off the timepiece.
“My first thought was I was scared to death,” Williams said of his reaction to seeing the picture. “It’s the first time I’m sure he knew it came from me.”
Williams testified last week that Maureen McDonnell asked him to buy the watch, and it was a mistake to do so.
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