>> It is harder to point to anything McDonnell got from Williams <<
IIRC, one of the judge’s instructions to the jury said they didn’t need to find anything definite that McDonnell got from Williams. They only needed to detect something that didn’t seem correct. So in effect, the jury was told they could convict merely on the basis of suspicion. That instruction ought to be the basis for a very strong appeal.
His conviction reeked of a witch hunt