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Feds get 3-week extension for McDonnell case

Posted at 2:24 PM, Aug 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-26 14:49:12-04

RICHMOND, Va. — Federal prosecutors have filed a motion to request three additional weeks to declare their intent to re-try former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell on corruption charges.

“The parties have been conferring, and that process has progressed but has not been completed within the Department of Justice. The parties jointly request that the case be held in abeyance for an additional three weeks, until September 19, 2016.” Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, wrote. “The parties will not make any further requests to hold in abeyance the issuance of a briefing schedule.”

A jury convicted McDonnell, and his wife Maureen, in 2014 and a judge sentenced him to two years in prison, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that decision earlier this year and sent the case back to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

McDonnell said prosecutors should look at the high court’s ruling, and drop the case all together.

McDonnell was found guilty of violating the law when he received, gifts, money and loans from Jonnie R. Williams, the CEO of a Virginia-based company, in exchange for official acts seen as favorable to Williams and his business.

The case centered around the question of what constitutes the scope of an “official action” under federal corruption law.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts set a clear definition of the term and how it can be used in corruption convictions.

“In sum, an ‘official act’ is a decision or action on a ‘question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy,” Roberts wrote. “Setting up a meeting, talking to another official, or organizing an event (or agreeing to do so) — without more — does not fit that definition of an official act.”

He also said that political corruption can still be prosecuted by the government, and noted that McDonnell’s actions were “distasteful.”

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will now consider whether there is enough evidence for a new trial based on the Supreme Court’s definition of “official acts.” Prosecutors would then have to decide whether to bring new charges against the former governor.

The CNN Wire contributed to this report.

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