Bob-bing For Prison Time

The hammer, the anvil, the bellows and the entire blacksmith's shop has fallen on former GOP Virginia Gov. Bob "Invasive Ultrasound" McDonnell, as he and his wife were indicted on federal charges on Tuesday.

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife were indicted Tuesday on corruption charges after a monthslong federal investigation into thousands of dollars in gifts the Republican received from a businessman and political donor. 

A bond hearing and arraignment is set for both defendants Friday in U.S. District Court in Richmond. 

"Today's charges represent the Justice Department's continued commitment to rooting out public corruption at all levels of government," Acting Assistant Attorney General Raman said in a news release. "Ensuring that elected officials uphold the public's trust is one of our most critical responsibilities." 

McDonnell left office earlier this month after four years in the governor's office. Virginia law limits governors to a single term. 

A federal investigation overshadowed the final months in office for the once-rising star of the Republican Party, with authorities looking into gifts he and his family received from Jonnie Williams, the former CEO of dietary supplements maker Star Scientific. 

In July, McDonnell apologized and said he had returned more than $120,000 in loans and other gifts from Williams. He insisted that he had done nothing illegal on behalf of Star Scientific but said he'd do "things differently today than choices I made a couple of years ago." 

On Tuesday, McDonnell repeated that apology but insisted he had done nothing wrong. 

"I deeply regret accepting legal gifts and loans from Mr. Williams, all of which have been repaid with interest, and I have apologized for my poor judgment for which I take full responsibility," McDonnell said. "However, I repeat emphatically that I did nothing illegal for Mr. Williams in exchange for what I believed was his personal generosity and friendship."

I'll go ahead and save you the trouble of a GOP response:  "This is a politically motivated prosecution by Obama's corrupt and Orwellian 'Department of Justice' against yet another political enemy, with the goal of distracting America from the failure of Obamacare and from the Democrat party's role in the four deaths of brave Americans in Benghazi."

Feel free to use that, Republican operatives.  America really does need a good belly laugh at you clowns.

Oh, and you know who should be really sweating right now?  Chris Christie.

TPM has a recap of the most interesting bits from the indictment here, including the knowledge that the McDonnells were deep in debt, and the suggestion that McDonnell was considering letting Star Scientific use state employees as guinea pigs for human testing of their products:

In August 2011, following an email from Bob McDonnell to Virginia's secretary of health, Maureen McDonnell met at the Executive Mansion with Williams and one of the secretary's senior policy advisors. At that meeting, according to the indictment, Williams discussed the idea of having Virginia government employees use Anatabloc, Star Scientific's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, "as a control group for research studies." 

This wasn't the only time this kind of idea came up. In October 2011, according to the indictment, Maureen McDonnell accompanied Williams and a research scientist who consulted for Star Scientific to a company event in Grand Blanc, Mich. They took Williams' private plane, and during the flights there and back, they discussed the potential health benefits of Anatabloc, the company's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, and the need for clinical studies. The scientist later emailed Maureen McDonnell a summary of their discussions. In it, he suggested it might be useful "to perform a study of Virginia government employees… to determine the prevalences [sic] of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions."

Because Republicans care.