Donor bought Rolex watch for Virginia Gov. McDonnell, people familiar with gift say

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Old McDonnell had an arm.
E-I-E-I-O.
And on his arm he had a watch.
E-I-E-I-O.

With a tick-tick here,
and a tick-tick there.
Here a tick, there a tick,
Everywhere a tick-tick.

Old McDonnell had an arm.
E-I-E-I-O.

Donor bought Rolex watch for Virginia Gov. McDonnell, people familiar with gift say

By Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman,

A prominent political donor purchased a Rolex watch for Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, according to two people with knowledge of the gift, and the governor did not disclose it in his annual financial filings.

The $6,500 luxury watch was provided by wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the people said. He is the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific and the person who paid for catering at the wedding of the governor’s daughter. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of an ongoing federal investigation into the relationship between Williams and the McDonnell family.
....

Williams bought the watch at the urging of Maureen McDonnell, who admired Williams’s own Rolex and suggested that he buy her a similar one she could give to her husband, the people said. Her proposal occurred moments before the meeting she had arranged with the state official, according to one person familiar with the request.
....

Federal investigators ... are also investigating other money provided to Maureen McDonnell, as well as expensive designer clothing — some bought in 2011 in New York City — according to people familiar with the inquiry. ... The shopping trip emanated from a social occasion with Williams and Maureen McDonnell shortly after the governor won election. The governor’s wife mentioned that she would need an inauguration dress, preferably one from the designer Oscar de la Renta, and would like Williams’s help getting one, according to two people familiar with her suggestion. ... Williams agreed to buy one for her, but a top staffer to the governor advised Williams and the first lady that such a gift was not allowed. A year later, the first lady contacted Williams to propose that he take her shopping at Bergdorf Goodman, the people familiar with the shopping said. In that store, Williams purchased an estimated $15,000 in clothing for Maureen McDonnell, they said.

[ellenfl]

1. perhaps she figured that as williams' mistress this wouldn't hurt bob. eom

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Virginia’s gifted governor

Virginia’s gifted governor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/va-gov-bob-mcdonnells-gifts-keep-coming/2013/06/28/5455c02c-de92-11e2-963a-72d740e88c12_story.html

By Editorial Board, Published: June 28

VIRGINIA GOV. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, are guilty of staggeringly bad judgment, ethical dim-wittedness and, in the governor’s case, ignoring Virginia’s financial disclosure laws. Whether the governor and his wife are to be charged with some other abuse of office is up to federal and state investigators.
....

The discovery that Ms. McDonnell “ordered” a $6,500 Rolex from Mr. Williams to present to her husband is the most recent example of the first couple’s royal sense of entitlement. Mr. Williams procured the wristwatch — which Mr. McDonnell never reported in his disclosure forms, as state law requires — just two weeks after the first lady arranged a meeting for Mr. Williams with state health officials in 2011 and shortly before she hosted a luncheon for his company at the governor’s mansion in Richmond.
....

Equally stupefying is Ms. McDonnell’s proposal that Mr. Williams take her shopping in 2011 at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan. During that jaunt, according to The Post, the governor’s wife rang up $15,000 on Mr. Williams’s tab.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. Tom Toles's cartoon in the {Washington Post},

Sunday, June 30, 2013.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/toles