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| McDonnell (center) with expensive lawyers John Brownlee, Henry Asbill. |
Bottom line: They're paying in one way or another. That's for the defense.
The prosecution has cost the public--so far--$800,000. A hundred supporters of the McDonnells have forked over a quarter of a million dollars for their defense, which was carried out by top-tier D.C. law firms (one of the lawyers, of course, was John Brownlee the former federal attorney for the Western District of Virginia who prosecuted Richard Burrow and Cecil Knox in high-profile losing cases).
The McDonnell's bills are estimated to finish at somewhere between $1 million and $2 million. It is difficult to say yet, but they're paying up to $750 an hour for the various attorneys, according to an expert.
The federal government, which ran this case ultimately, doesn't release figures for its prosecutions, but The Pilot, in its story, said, "$795,000 was spent [by Virginia] last year to cover bills from two private law firms who supplied counsel to state employees involved in the case, including the governor."
(Photo: The Pilot.)
Again, regardless of the sentence they receive, this family has paid a mighty price for their transgressions. Too bad taxpayers had to divert funds from other needs to prosecute them.
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