RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were indicted on corruption charges in January, the couple stood together at a hastily called news conference to denounce the charges. 
 
 Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, center, walks by reporters as he leaves the Federal Courthouse in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, July 29, 2014. McDonnell and his wife are charged in a 14-count indictment... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell leaves the federal courthouse in Richmond, Va., with his lawyer John L. Brownlee on the second day of his and his wife Maureen's corruption trial, Tuesday, July 29,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell, left, and two of her lawyers, Heather Martin, center, and Stephen Michael Hauss, right, leave the Federal Courthouse in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, July 29, 2014.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, center, leaves the federal courthouse in Richmond, Va., with his lawyer John L. Brownlee on the second day of his and his wife Maureen's corruption trial Tuesday, July... (Associated Press) 
 
 Maureen McDonnell, center, and two of her lawyers, Heather Martin, left, and Stephen Michael Hauss, right, leave the federal courthouse in Richmond, Va.,Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The corruption trial for... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell leaves the federal courthouse in Richmond, Va., with his lawyer John L. Brownlee on the second day of his and his wife Maureen's corruption trial, Tuesday, July 29,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, center, leaves the federal courthouse in Richmond, Va., with his lawyer John L. Brownlee on the second day of his and his wife Maureen's corruption trial, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Maureen McDonnell, center, and two of her lawyers, Heather Martin, left, and Stephen Michael Hauss, (partially hidden by camera) right, leave the Federal Courthouse in Richmond, Va., Tuesday, July 29,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Three days later, they held hands as they made their way through the federal courthouse to enter not-guilty pleas. The couple continued to show a united front for more than six months during several pretrial motions. 
 
 But since the start of the trial this week, the couple has been hands off — entering and leaving the courthouse apart and showing no outward signs of affection. 
 
 On Tuesday, defense attorneys helped explain that separation as they presented to jurors the sordid details of the couple's troubled marriage as part of a legal strategy some experts say may be a key part of the McDonnells' defense. 
 
 The McDonnells are charged in a 14-count indictment with accepting more than $165,000 in loans, designer clothes, vacations and a Rolex watch from Jonnie Williams, the CEO of dietary supplements maker Star Scientific, in exchange for helping to promote Williams' business. If convicted, they could face decades in prison. 
 
 Maureen McDonnell's lawyer, William A. Burck, told jurors during opening statements that the former first lady had a crush on Williams but was "duped" by him into thinking he cared for her. Burck said Maureen and Bob McDonnell were pretending to be a happy couple while he was serving as governor. 
 
 "They were barely on speaking terms," Burck said. 
 
 A lawyer for the former governor said Bob McDonnell will testify on his own behalf and read an email in which he begged his wife to work things out with him. 
 
 "It fell upon blind eyes and deaf ears because that evening, Maureen was distracted by other interests," defense attorney John Brownlee said. 
 
 Brownlee said the government went to great lengths looking for people to say bad things about his client, even sending investigators to interview former presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, and "came up empty." McDonnell was widely mentioned as a possible Romney running mate in 2012. 
 
 Brownlee said the long hours Bob McDonnell spent at work fueled Maureen McDonnell's anger and resentment. 
 
 "She hated him for not being around, for serving the public night and day and not having anything left for her," Brownlee said. 
 
 The McDonnell's daughter, Cailin McDonnell Young, testified that she had to go through her father's scheduler in order to see him. He would sometimes take days to return phone calls. 
 
 Joseph E. diGenova, a former federal prosecutor not affiliated with the case, said the defense team is airing details of the couple's troubled marriage as a way "to create some sympathy" and show that Bob McDonnell could have been unaware of the dealings between Maureen McDonnell and Williams. 
 
 The strategy could backfire, he said. 
 
 "There's always a risk the jury will think it's a ploy," diGenova said. 
 
 Robert D. Holsworth, a consultant and retired Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist, said the defense is trying to undermine a key part of the prosecution's case. 
 
 "Basically, they're saying there's no conspiracy because there's no marriage," Holsworth said. 
 
 Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber said during opening statements that McDonnell and his wife betrayed the public's trust by lining their pockets with "secret gifts and cash." McDonnell, who left office in January, had a duty "not to sell the power and influence of his office to the highest bidder," Aber said. 
 
 Attorneys for the McDonnells told jurors the governor did what any of his predecessors would do for a Virginia-based company. They questioned Williams' character and said the couple couldn't have been scheming together because their marriage was falling apart. 
 
 McDonnells' attorneys sought to have them tried separately, but the judge refused. The former first lady's attorneys have suggested that she was not an elected or paid official and, therefore, not subject to the same scrutiny as her husband. 
 
 Burck said Williams and Maureen McDonnell frequently exchanged text messages and phone calls, and that Williams often visited the Executive Mansion. Burck said the pair had a relationship that "some people would consider inappropriate" and that one potential witness may describe Williams as Maureen McDonnell's "favorite playmate." He did not indicate that their relationship was physical. 
 
 Aber, the prosecutor, told the jury that the gifts and frequent text messaging between Williams and Maureen McDonnell were "always just a business relationship and nothing more." 
 
 She showed the jury a photo of Bob McDonnell, smiling broadly and wearing sunglasses, driving Williams' Ferrari during a vacation at Williams' lake house. 
 
 The former governor is accused of setting up a meeting between Williams and a state health official, hosting a product launch reception at the Executive Mansion and attending a dinner and seminar aimed at persuading doctors to recommend a Star Scientific product. 
 
 Brownlee said McDonnell, whose campaign slogan was "Bob's for Jobs," spoke favorably of all Virginia businesses. 
 
 "Bob McDonnell eats Virginia ham, he drinks Virginia wine, and my guess is if he smoked he'd smoke Virginia cigarettes," Brownlee said. 
 
 Brownlee attacked Williams' credibility, calling him a "master manipulator" who deceived the McDonnells and the government to receive immunity. 
 
 The trial is set to resume Wednesday morning with the continued testimony of Williams' assistant, Jerri Fulkerson. ||||| Prosecutors introduced this photo into evidence on Tuesday — it became available to the public Wednesday. It shows Robert F. and Maureen McDonnell sitting in Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr.’s Ferrari. 
 
 Cailin McDonnell-Young testified that the photo was taken in the driveway of Williams’s vacation home at Smith Mountain Lake. Acknowledging that as governor her father was generally driven around by members of the state police’s executive protection unit, she said that he had driven the car to brunch while the family vacationed at Williams’s home. 
 
 The McDonnells also drove the car home to Richmond on that 2011 day, but McDonnell-Young told prosecutors she had left the vacation early and could not answer questions about that drive. 
 
 This was one of two photos of the Ferrari displayed by prosecutors Tuesday. During her opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber also flashed a photo that had been attached to an e-mail sent by Maureen McDonnell. In that photo, Robert F. McDonnell is behind the wheel of the car, driving with the convertible’s top down. 
 
 The exhibits also included a photo of the Smith Mountain Lake home they vacationed at. ||||| RICHMOND 
 
 Foreshadowing a line of defense worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy, lawyers for former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, told a federal jury Tuesday that the McDonnells couldn’t have conspired to corrupt the governor’s office because their marriage was falling apart. 
 
 While putting on a public face of marital bliss, behind the scenes, Virginia’s first couple were barely on speaking terms for much of McDonnell’s governorship, their lawyers said in opening arguments of a corruption trial that could land the pair in prison for life. 
 
 Bob McDonnell’s penchant for putting in 14- to 16-hour days on the job took a toll on his family – especially his wife, John Brownlee, one of the ex-governor’s attorneys, told the jury. 
 
 “Something had to give, and it was his marriage,” Brownlee said. Eventually, he said, communication between the two almost entirely broke down. 
 
 At one point, he said, “she said she hated him” – there was not enough money, he didn’t spend enough time at home, and there was nothing left for her. 
 
 “It created a rift so wide that an outsider – in this case, a man – could invade and poison their life,” Brownlee said. 
 
 That man, he told the jury, was Jonnie Williams. 
 
 The former CEO of a diet supplement company called Star Scientific, Williams is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness, testifying that he showered the McDonnells with more than $160,000 in lavish gifts, loans and other favors in exchange for the first couple’s help in promoting his products. 
 
 He has been granted immunity from prosecution for his testimony. 
 
 Maureen McDonnell had a difficult time adjusting to her life as first lady, William Burck, one of her attorneys, told the jury. Deeply uncomfortable, stressed and overwhelmed, she often lost her temper with her husband and staff, he said. 
 
 Her isolation, anger and anxiety “made it easier for Jonnie Williams to swoop in,” Burck said. 
 
 “You will hear evidence that she had a crush on him,” he said. “Unlike other men in her life, he paid attention to her.” 
 
 In the words of one witness, Williams was Maureen McDonnell’s “favorite playmate,” Burck said. “It was a relationship that some people would consider inappropriate.” 
 
 The two exchanged some 1,200 phone calls and text messages, he said, and Maureen McDonnell hid many of Williams’ favors from her husband. 
 
 Prosecutors would like the jury to believe that the McDonnells were “partners in crime – Bonnie and Clyde,” Burck said. “But their theory cannot be reconciled with the facts.” 
 
 Maureen McDonnell was not a public official, Burck reminded the jury. 
 
 “She is accused of corruption only because of who she is married to,” he said. “Bob McDonnell is the government’s ultimate target in this case. Maureen McDonnell is sitting here as the collateral damage.” 
 
 A survivor of a breast cancer scare at 19, Maureen McDonnell had a 30-year passion for nutritional supplements such as Anatabloc, the tobacco extract that Williams was peddling for its health benefits, Burck said. 
 
 “She believed in the product,” he said. “She was a true believer who drank the Kool-Aid.” 
 
 Williams duped her by exploiting her vulnerability, Burck said, and duped federal prosecutors in much the same way by telling them what they wanted to hear. 
 
 By agreeing to testify in exchange for immunity, Burck suggested, Williams avoided going to prison for a possible $10 million stock fraud. 
 
 “He always thought of himself as a big fish,” Burck said, “but he knew that Bob McDonnell was a bigger fish.” 
 
 Williams’ dealings with the McDonnells amounted to “just a business relationship and nothing more,” Jessica Aber, one of the prosecutors, told the jury in her opening statement. 
 
 Williams was a “vitamin salesman” trying to market his product, Aber said, and he needed scientific studies to get it approved for sale as a prescription drug. 
 
 The McDonnells accommodated him, all the while “lining their pockets with secret cash,” she said. “Mr. and Mrs. McDonnell knew what he wanted, and they gave it to him.” 
 
 Bob McDonnell enjoyed a six-figure salary, a mansion, a chef, a butler and a security detail all at taxpayer expense, Aber said, and he had “a duty not to sell the power and influence of his office to the highest bidder.” 
 
 The McDonnells were financially strapped because of losses in real estate investments, and Williams came to their rescue, Aber said. Among the favors he bestowed on the first couple were $120,000 in loans, trips on his private jet, a vacation stay at his luxurious home on Smith Mountain Lake, the use of his Ferrari sports car, $20,000 worth of designer clothes for Maureen McDonnell, and a $15,000 check to cover the catering costs for the wedding reception of the McDonnells’ daughter Cailin. 
 
 In return, Aber said, the McDonnells hosted an Anatabloc product launch in the governor’s mansion, and the governor used his influence with officials in his administration in an unsuccessful effort to instigate the clinical trials Williams coveted. 
 
 Moreover, Aber said, the McDonnells went to great lengths to conceal the extent of their relationship with Williams, including falsifying bank loan documents to hide the loans he provided them. 
 
 In addition, Aber said, Bob McDonnell failed to disclose those loans and many of Williams’ gifts on the annual financial disclosure statements he was required to file under state law. And Maureen McDonnell, who had bought thousands of dollars worth of Star stock, unloaded it just before the filing deadline so it wouldn’t have to be disclosed. 
 
 Brownlee, the ex-governor’s attorney, countered that McDonnell’s disclosure reports were “all perfectly legal under Virginia law.” 
 
 Williams never received state contracts, loans, board positions, special legislation or money in the state budget, Brownlee said. 
 
 The governor only “set up a couple of meetings” and “said nice things” about Williams’ products, Brownlee said. 
 
 “That’s who he was as governor – he was ‘Bob’s for Jobs,’ ” he said, quoting McDonnell’s campaign slogan. “Bob McDonnell eats Virginia ham, he drinks Virginia wine, and, if the man smoked, my guess is, he would smoke Virginia cigarettes. 
 
 “Bob never asked a single person in Virginia government to do a thing for Jonnie Williams except hear him out. There was no under-the-table deal.” 
 
 Federal investigators combed through McDonnell’s emails, forced his children to testify before a grand jury, subpoenaed his accountant, interviewed his neighbors and even talked to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, for whom McDonnell was once considered a vice presidential prospect, Brownlee said. 
 
 The investigators were “hoping to find someone to say something bad about Bob McDonnell,” he said. “And you know what? They came up empty.” 
 
 “The government’s case depends almost entirely on the word of a dishonest man.” 
 
 Aber, the prosecutor, told the jury that proof of a conspiracy does not require that Williams received state money or that he made an explicit agreement with the McDonnells. 
 
 “The defendants are way too sophisticated for that,” she said. 
 
 Among the witnesses on the opening day of testimony was Cailin McDonnell Young, the governor’s daughter whose wedding reception was paid for by Williams. 
 
 Young said she was shocked and flattered by Williams’ gift, which her mother explained by telling her that “Mr. Williams was so impressed with me” after meeting her in a brief encounter at the governor’s mansion. 
 
 When her father found out about the gift later, after federal investigators questioned Maureen McDonnell about it, “he was very upset that she had taken that check,” Young testified. 
 
 When prosecutors showed several photos from Young’s wedding on the courtroom video screens, Young began sobbing, prompting Judge James Spencer to call a recess. 
 
 On cross-examination, Young said that, during Bob McDonnell’s tenure as governor and his previous service as attorney general, “I hardly ever saw my father.” 
 
 “Anytime I wanted to see my dad, I had to go through a scheduler,” she said. 
 
 Asked how it feels to have her wedding become part of a political corruption trial, Young replied: “It’s extremely painful. 
 
 “Our wedding now has this black cloud over it. We can’t go back and look at it with a happy memory.” 
 
 Bill Sizemore, 757-618-8855, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
– Bob and Maureen McDonnell's corruption trial got under way this week, and it's yielding no dearth of grist for the mill. While it appeared financial problems drove Virginia's former first couple to accept $165,000 in loans and gifts from a donor, the McDonnells' lawyer put up what the Virginian-Pilot calls "a line of defense worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy" during yesterday's proceedings. Namely, that the McDonnells' marriage was so terrible that they "were barely on speaking terms," and thus couldn't have conspired. Maureen McDonnell "said she hated (her husband)," said lawyer John Brownlee. Bob McDonnell's long hours on the job and the couple's dreary finances resulted in "a rift so wide" that "an outsider"—in this case, Star Scientific honcho and mega-donor Jonnie Williams—"could invade and poison the marriage." Adding insult to injury, Maureen McDonnell had a major "crush" on the gift-giving Williams. An ex-federal prosecutor tells the AP that lawyers for the McDonnells are trying to build up the lovelorn-wife story to show that she was "duped" by Williams—who reportedly showered her with fancy clothes, trips, and cash in exchange for the governor's promotion of his business—and to break down the prosecution's case by "[creating] some sympathy" for Bob McDonnell. The Washington Post has a liveblog of the trial here, including a photo of the seemingly happy couple posing in Williams' Ferrari.