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U.S. Attorney moves to dismiss corruption case against Bob and Maureen McDonnell

Posted at 2:35 PM, Sep 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-08 22:07:22-04

WASHINGTON - Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen will not be retried, according to court documents. The motion to remand for dismissal was filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Dana Boente.

The motion states that “The United States respectfully moves for this court to remand this case to the district court for the United States to file a motion to dismiss the indictment with prejudice under Fed. R. Crim. P. 48 (a). The defendant does not oppose this motion.” To dismiss with prejudice means the two can't be retried ever again under the same charges.

Once judges from The Fourth Circuit of Appeals approves the motion, it will head back to the U.S. District Court for formal dismissal.

In June 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously threw out McDonnell’s conviction on corruption charges.

The 8-0 decision had left open the possibility that McDonnell could be retried, writing that the jury may not have been correctly instructed.

“Because the jury was not correctly instructed on the meaning of ‘official act,’ it may have convicted Governor McDonnell for conduct that is not unlawful,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in June. “For that reason, we cannot conclude that the errors in the jury instructions were ‘harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.’ We accordingly vacate Governor McDonnell’s convictions.”

At issue was what constituted the scope of “official action” under federal corruption law.

Click here for complete coverage of the McDonnell trial