Former Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were convicted of corruption by way of accepting $177,000 worth in gifts and loans. McDonnell did not report a $50,000 personal loan for a realty company he owned with his sister, nor did he reject a $6500 Rolex watch as a gift, among other transgressions. McDonnell tells Bill Whitaker on 60 Minutes: “My wife gave it [the Rolex] to me at Christmas, in 2012.” He adds, “In all my heart, I thought it was from her. She told me it was from her.” When in fact it was given to her to give to the governor. When Whitaker asks McDonnell if he wondered how his wife could afford a Rolex he says, “I didn’t know what a Rolex cost, honestly. I’m a Seiko and Timex guy, I’ve always have been.”
In January 2015, McDonnell was sentenced to two years in prison, and two years of supervised release. But McDonnell didn’t go to jail because in September 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction. McDonnell was within the state law then (he didn’t have to disclose gifts to his family members) — laws that Virginia has since changed. In his opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote McDonnell’s conduct did not “typify normal political interaction…far from it.” Roberts also called the case’s details “tawdry.” 60 Minutes airs Sundays at 7pm on CBS.
