Former Governor Wilder stands by McDonnell, courtroom crowd applauds

By Lynn R. Mitchell

As character witness after character witness approached the witness stand, federal prosecutors sat and listened but made no move to cross-examine … until former Governor Doug Wilder stepped up to defend his old friend. Rosalind S. Helderman and Matthew Zapotosky with the Washington Post wrote what happened in the courtroom that caused the pro-McDonnell crowd to explode in applause when he brought up the man who got blanket immunity from the federal government:

L. Douglas Wilder, a fraternity brother of the former  governor and a former Virginia governor himself, told the judge that if not for this case, McDonnell would be on the shortlist for the presidential nomination.

“Without question,” Wilder said.