there, slicker with your let me help you out. your vest can we go to the control room for a second? can you guys make sure that you get donny a morning joe slicker, and we ll send him out in the next storm if. that d be great. you have your keepers, the people that go up in the pink vests oh, no, we ll take we ll find this is on the streets, morning joe out from the studio, down on the streets. i ll find a good spot for you. okay. great. it s bigger than my apartment, your terrace. no terraces in townhouses. i think there s a place for you on the jersey shore perhaps. all right. so let s go to virginia. former governor governor bob mcdonnell and his wife maureen are facing potentially decades in jail for accepting gifts in exchange for political favors. yesterday, the mcdonnells are indicted on a dozen federal corruption charges. they re all related to this man, johnny williams, a
money. in the white house they only pair a certain salary and they had three kids to raise and my mother would go to secondhand stores to buy dresses. my brother is in there now. there s a ton of pressure because the events every day are meeting world leaders, greeting the president on the tarmac. i m not making excuses for the mcdonnells. i m saying it s not as excessive as it seems when you look at what is expected of them in the washington double and you can get caught in it. my mother never got caught of it, she could care what people think but she s a very unusual person. dan rohrabacher, we were done
years-long investigation, centering on the relationship between the mcdonnells and this man, johnny r. williams sr., who is the ceo of a dietary supplement company called star scientific. the basics of the allegations are this. that williams gave the governor and his wife more than $140,000 in gifts in exchange for concrete actions by both the governor and his wife to promote star scientific. in fact, the list of cash and gifts, as stated in today s indictment, includes $140,850 including multiple cash payments, black louis vuitton shoes, white louis vuitton shoes, a rolex watch engraved with 71st governor of virginia, a blew armani jacket and two dresses. one pair of emilio rose earrings, two sets of golf clubs and two iphones. i m reading you only part of the long list of gifts alleged in this complaint. by the time the scandal had reached its apex in 2013, governor mcdonnell issued a
white water. kwame kilpatrick. i was going to say, they re in a lot of trouble. the mcdonnells are in a lot of trouble. also in virginia, there are term limits, so it s an argument, maybe, against term lumpts. if you have to run for another campaign, you re going to watch yourself, but they were in, one and done. 94 years. i think there s temptation. as much as i think we should have term limits, this might be a little too short. your lip is quivering. i think virginia is the last state with one term, and they ought to rethink that. kentucky was the last one before that. when you look at states with one terms, there s more corruption. agreed. got to get it all into four years. that s right. can we point out, this is a federal indictment, so it s kind of unusual to come from the feds rather than within the state. can i say something really quick? i said the governor of kentucky, why do you only have four-year terms in the state? he said, son, if you couldn t
quid pro quo. williams also bought a rolex watch for the governor and paid for golf outings for mcdonnell and his family. prosecutors contend that in exchange, the mcdonnells arranged for williams to have access to the state official and that the mcdonnells themselves attended star scientific events all designed to promote the company and its stock price, and they even have text messages having to do talking about the stock price of the company. they also say the couple tried to hide the extent of the relationship with williams and accused the former first lady of lying to investigators. joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what do the feds have? is their case solid? that s an interesting question, because mcdonnells lawyers are attacking it, saying this looks bad, of course, you get before a jury, the he s owned up to all of the acceptance, right? he s not denying yes. these gifts? that s true. he says it was poor judgment. he s paid