WASHINGTON — Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s legal woes are not over yet. In fact, he could be facing a retrial.
The Washington Post first reported that federal prosecutors want to put him on trial again. But high ranking officials with the Justice Department will have the final say on that decision.
In late June, McDonnell’s conviction on public corruption charges was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said the crimes the former governor was charged with were too broad.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case has now narrowed the definition of public corruption that could be used in a retrial. “It’s not like a do-over with the same rules applying,” CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen explains. “It’s a do-over where the rules against the government are going to be harder.”
Cohen says the high court has essentially restricted or limited the scope of the government’s case, which will make it harder for the government to prevail in a retrial. He says if there is a retrial and if there is another conviction that it could be appealed and end up at the U.S. Supreme Court again.
Prosecutors have a Sept. 19 deadline to decide if they will move forward with a new trial.
“I would be surprised that the Justice Department wants to do this again in this environment, given the restrictions placed on this case by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Cohen said.
He says the Supreme Court did not think much of the case against McDonnell in the first place. “So you have a hostile Supreme Court sort of signaling that they are not so sure that the laws have been broken,” he says.
Also, Cohen says jury instructions the second time around will be more difficult for prosecutors because of the Supreme Court’s ruling. “The jury instructions will, to the extent that the case gets that far, will have to be read in a way that makes it more likely that there would be a hung jury or an acquittal,” he says.
