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McDonnell on Star Scientific scandal: 'I know who my friends are'
Source: Associated Press
McDonnell on Star Scientific scandal: 'I know who my friends are'
Posted: Friday, August 16, 2013 8:27 am | Updated: 8:30 am, Fri Aug 16, 2013.
Associated Press |
MARTINSVILLE — For four years, Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and Gov. Bob McDonnell shared a friendship that afforded Williams access to the pinnacle of Virginia political power and provided McDonnell and his family a taste of the good life the multimillionaire corporate executive loved to flaunt.
That friendship is now strained — if not dead — as a federal criminal investigation into their relationship pushes them in conflicting directions, creating an election-year scandal that has consumed the final months of the governor's term.
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The McDonnell and Williams families grew quite close. Williams and his wife, Celeste, were familiar faces at official Executive Mansion functions and, even more important, personal mansion guests of the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell. They were on a select list of guests for the private 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell and gave her a $15,000 check as a gift. Williams gave Cailin's sister Jeanine a $10,000 check before her wedding this spring. Maureen McDonnell was Williams' guest on a New York City shopping spree, and she persuaded him to buy the governor the expensive timepiece, The Washington Post reported.
With the friendship in full bloom, Star Scientific representatives were lobbying senior McDonnell administration officials to include the company's anti-inflammatory supplement, Anatabloc, in every state employee's basic health benefits package. The request was denied, and a review by Democratic former Attorney General Anthony Troy found no evidence that either Williams or the company received any benefit, appointment, or other special treatment from state government during McDonnell's term.
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Posted: Friday, August 16, 2013 8:27 am | Updated: 8:30 am, Fri Aug 16, 2013.
Associated Press |
MARTINSVILLE — For four years, Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and Gov. Bob McDonnell shared a friendship that afforded Williams access to the pinnacle of Virginia political power and provided McDonnell and his family a taste of the good life the multimillionaire corporate executive loved to flaunt.
That friendship is now strained — if not dead — as a federal criminal investigation into their relationship pushes them in conflicting directions, creating an election-year scandal that has consumed the final months of the governor's term.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
The McDonnell and Williams families grew quite close. Williams and his wife, Celeste, were familiar faces at official Executive Mansion functions and, even more important, personal mansion guests of the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell. They were on a select list of guests for the private 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell and gave her a $15,000 check as a gift. Williams gave Cailin's sister Jeanine a $10,000 check before her wedding this spring. Maureen McDonnell was Williams' guest on a New York City shopping spree, and she persuaded him to buy the governor the expensive timepiece, The Washington Post reported.
With the friendship in full bloom, Star Scientific representatives were lobbying senior McDonnell administration officials to include the company's anti-inflammatory supplement, Anatabloc, in every state employee's basic health benefits package. The request was denied, and a review by Democratic former Attorney General Anthony Troy found no evidence that either Williams or the company received any benefit, appointment, or other special treatment from state government during McDonnell's term.
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Read more: http://www.newsadvance.com/news/state/article_4504909e-066f-11e3-ae79-001a4bcf6878.html
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