The corruption case of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell will be discussed on Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court will deliberate if they will take the former governor's case.
The Supreme Court will decide on Friday, stated WTVR. McDonnell and his wife Maureen were convicted of accepting more than $170,000 in gifts and loans from Henrico CEO Johnnie Williams. A jury found the two guilty and sentenced Bob in January 2015 to a two-year in prison will his wife will have to do a year and a day in the prison. They are both freed while they are in the process of their appeals.
If Supreme Court will take the case of the former VA governor, there would be a big chance that they will win according to some legal experts. McDonnell's lawyers argued in a court before that the definition provided to the jury of what constitutes an "official act" that would be unlawful to promise to trade for cash or a gift was unconstitutionally wide, said WTOP. They also argued that there were problems with jury selection in the case. However, a three-judge panel rejected all of those arguments and a full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear the case.
Wall Street Journal reported that the legal team of Mr. McDonnell and the court doesn't really deny the gift, loans, courtesiesand arranged meetings because it is accepted and is approved by the law. Nevertheless, the implications of those actions were the ones questioned. The Justice Department said Mr. McDonnell "exploited the power of his office" to help the executive. They added that he stimulated state researchers to study a dietary supplement made by the executive's company. He also urged the important officials to include the supplement under the state health plan.
McDonnell's legal team petitioned to the US Supreme Court that the "quo" wasn't despicable at all. Lawyers of McDonnell stated in the brief that giving conviction on such activities would put each public official at the mercy of federal prosecutors.
