The government’s star witness, Jonnie Williams, finished up his testimony Monday at about 1:00 PM, and in the afternoon the government moved on to two key gubernatorial aides — McDonnell’s former campaign manager Phil Cox and his scheduler, Monica Block. There were few fireworks. Cox testified that he had to dissuade Maureen from a shopping trip with Jonnie Williams, and from having Jonnie pay for her inaugural ball gown. He told Bob that having the dress bought was a bad idea, and when he basically put a stop to Maureen’s hope to get the dress bought for her, she accused him of disloyalty.
Cox also testified that Maureen was trying to convince Ann Romney that Anatabloc could help Ann’s multiple sclerosis, and he then stepped into the conversation to direct it to another topic, calling the conversation “a train wreck.” Maureen had been hoping to get Jonnie a chance to talk with Ann about Anatabloc, but that never happened; Cox said, “That’s not how it works.”
Monica Block testified about a LOT of e-mails, and about how the McDonnells’ daughter, Cailin, wanted Monica to help her line up limousines for the wedding from various McDonnell donors. Block testified that “I knew this would happen. I quit.” She now works for the Republican Governor’s Association. When court adjourned for the day, she was still testifying.
It seems pretty likely that the next few days’ testimony will be more of the same — questions of McDonnell staffers about how the Governor worked, how the Governor’s Office functioned, and what the relationship was between Maureen and the official functions of the Governor. The testimony today seemed to be based on the notion that Maureen was a problem that required constant management from the Governor’s staff.
One important distinction here — Cox testified that in his opinion, having Jonnie buy the $30,000 dress for Maureen was “bad optics,” not that it was illegal. Cox had wanted to keep Williams away from Bob McDonnell, and to dissuade him from fancy gifts, because of how it would look rather than because it seemed to be illegal.
This is an important point, because if the jury comes away from the government’s evidence thinking that everything was a matter of “bad optics” rather than illegality, Bob and Maureen don’t get convicted. This all points to the time when Bob McDonnell testifies — which his attorney promised he would do. He needs to be able to look the jury in the eye and say, “I’m sorry we got caught up in this, but I was so focused on helping a Virginia company that hires Virginia workers that I did some things that I know you probably think — ‘that was tacky.’ And you’d be right. But I never intended to break any law…” Jonnie Williams may be a salesman for his product, but Bob McDonnell (like all political figures) is an experienced salesman of himself. That will be the climactic moment in the case.
Whenever commentators talk about the apparent strategy to paint this picture of a Governor who was doing the people’s business while his wife sat in the Governor’s Mansion pining away for attention, you can’t go more than a minute or two without hearing from a feminist, “What a sleaze — throwing his wife under the bus.”
But what if it is their best defense? And perhaps more importantly, what if it is actually true?
