Bob McDonnell’s team of private lawyers delivers a $53,530 legal bill for VA’s taxpayers to pick up

Virginia’s governor who never stops taking has struck again. According to legal documents released on Monday, private attorneys for Governor Bob McDonnell billed the state close to $54,000 for its first five weeks of work. If only most Virginians could earn this sum in a year!

The private attorneys were appointed by Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to represent Gov. McDonnell in the embezzlement case against the latter’s former chef, Todd Schneider, due to the conflict of interest involved. In cases involving state employees and the governor, the attorney general would normally act as defense counsel.

Todd Schneider has been at the heart of the continuous scandals involving gifts that have shrouded McDonnell’s political life for the last few months. Mr. Schneider is accused of “pilfering” food from the Executive Mansion, which is a felony offense. But the irony that Mr. Schneider was so quickly brought up on charges for his alleged “food embezzlement” and hardly a whisper has sounded about charges being pressed against McDonnell for his unethical endeavors is dumbfounding.

As the Washington Post reports it, here’s a brief rundown of the $53,530 legal bill that McDonnell’s elite team of lawyers has racked up in its first five weeks. Seven attorneys and one paralegal for Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott charged for a combined 225.5 hours so far in the felony embezzlement case; and the actual trial for Mr. Schneider doesn’t begin until October.

Assuming that the trial lasts until the end of October, Virginia’s taxpayers could be looking at forking over at least another $250,000, at least, because the billing period for the expenses recently reported go through May 31st.

Most of the seven attorney team at Eckert billed Virginia’s taxpayers at a rate of $250 an hour, which by the generosity of their spirits is less than their standard hourly rates. What saints?! The paralegal clocked in at $170 an hour.

What did Virginia’s taxpayers get for these heroic efforts? A three-page “external report” that concluded Star Scientific and its CEO, Jonnie Williams, had not received any state awards or contracts in exchange for the gifts that McDonnell received. Great, but this is something a graduate student could have researched and concluded on minimum wage.

I don’t know if anyone has taken notice, but since this governor has been in office, a lot of Virginia’s taxpayer dollars have been spent in some really extravagant ways. At the very least, let this be a clarion call for Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates to take solemn vows that they will not act as if the governor’s office is a gambling house with the taxpaying money of Virginians.