Maureen McDonnell, the former first lady of Virginia, was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison.
The sentence was handed down in Richmond by a federal judge approximately a month after her husband, former Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, was sentenced to two years in prison.
The two were found guilty of multiple charges stemming from a lengthy and often personal corruption trial in September. He was convicted on 11 charges, she on eight.
Maureen McDonnell, who was sentenced on a corruption charge, is currently free on bond pending appeal. She also was given two years supervised probation.
“I started a chain of events that brought embarrassment on us all,” she said during the sentencing.
“Mrs. McDonnell has lived the worst nightmare of a public official’s spouse: Vilified in the media and blamed not only for ruining her husband’s political career, but for sending him to prison,” defense attorneys wrote in their sentencing recommendation to U.S. District Judge James Spencer, the same judge sentenced her husband, according to NBC Washington.
