Washington Post: “In the strange four months of enforced limbo that have separated McDonnell’s shocking guilty verdict from his much-anticipated sentencing Tuesday, the former Republican governor has in some ways presided over an extended wake for his own once-promising political and personal future.”
“It has been an emotional time for McDonnell, who potentially faces a sentence of a decade or more in prison. Friends and associates say the 60-year-old former governor has struggled to process how 12 Virginians could believe that he is a criminal, selling his office in exchange for $177,000 in loans and luxury gifts and vacations from a dietary supplement company executive. Friends say he has been downright depressed on some days, but more upbeat on others, smiling nostalgically when talking about his time in office, a time when he was popular enough that it was thought he might be planning a presidential campaign this year.”
Interesting detail: “But he has remained estranged from his wife, Maureen, who was convicted along with him, and has been blamed by many close to McDonnell for creating the scandal. After 38 years of marriage, the two left the courthouse separately after the September verdict and did not speak that night.”
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