Bob McDonnell, public corruption, and the Supreme Court

We the People

National Constitution Center

History, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2016

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Noah Bookbinder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and Judge Nancy Gertner of Harvard Law School discuss the issues at stake in McDonnell v. United States. Get the latest constitutional news, and continue the conversation, on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. We want to know what you think of the podcast! Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to We the People on iTunes. While you’re in the iTunes Store, leave us a rating and review—it helps other people discover what we do. Please also subscribe to Live at America’s Town Hall, featuring conversations and debates presented at the Center, across from Independence Hall in beautiful Philadelphia. We the People is a member of Slate’s Panoply network. Check out all of our sibling podcasts at iTunes.com/Panoply. Despite our congressional charter, the National Constitution Center is a private nonprofit—we receive little government support, and we rely on the generosity of people around the country who are inspired by our nonpartisan mission of constitutional debate and education. Please consider becoming a member to support our work, including this podcast. Visit constitutioncenter.org to learn more. This show was engineered by Jason Gregory and produced by Nicandro Iannacci. Research was provided by Josh Waimberg and Danieli Evans. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:08.0	The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America, chartered by Congress Congress to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.
0:18.0	And on today's show we take a close look at McDonald versus United States, a major Supreme Court case in which Bob
0:25.0	McDonnell, a former governor of Virginia, is challenging his conviction under
0:29.7	public corruption law. Joining me to discuss the issues in this fascinating case are two of America's
0:36.2	leading legal experts, both of whom filed amicus briefs on opposite sides of the case.
0:41.6	Noah Bookbinder is the Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and
0:47.8	Judge Nancy Gertner is a senior lecturer on law at Harvard Law School.
0:53.7	Noah, Nancy, if I may, thank you so much for being here.
0:58.6	Glad to be here.
0:59.6	Good to be here too.
1:01.0	Noah, can we jump right in and can you tell us the facts of the case?
1:04.7	What were the prosecution's charges against former Governor McDonnell and what was he convicted of?
1:09.2	Sure.
1:10.2	Well, the prosecution charged Governor McDonnell with what's called honest services
1:17.0	fraud, which is a sort of a fancy name that in this case really comes down to charging him with bribery with accepting things of value
1:26.5	in exchange for official actions to benefit the person who gave those things value uh... he was also
1:34.0	convicted under a charge called the hobs act
1:38.1	uh... again a somewhat esoteric federal law but uh... really in this case came down
1:45.1	essentially to bribery charges. The factual allegations were that
1:51.6	Governor McDonnell accepted almost 200,000 dollars worth of loans and gifts
2:00.0	from a guy named Johnny Williams. This is not somebody who was a close- uh... from uh... again and jolly williams
	...

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