Investigation: Cuccinelli did not break law As a result of that investigation, Herring found no criminal wrongdoing. "Although one cannot help but question whether repeated omissions of gifts from Williams are coincidence or a pattern reflecting intent to conceal, the disclosure of several other gifts and benefits from Williams in his original statements suggests that the Attorney General was not attempting to conceal the relationship," Herring wrote in a report on his investigation. Furthermore, we find no evidence that in his Statements the AG intentionally mischaracterized gifts and benefits from Star Scientific and Williams. Herring's conclusions, released in an e-mail Thursday morning, could help blunt the issue in the governor's race. Cuccinelli faces former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe in the contest to succeed term-limited Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R). Democrats have sought to use Cuccinelli's reporting failures to cast doubt on the attorney general's integrity. Cuccinelli said the lapses were inadvertent oversights. The Washington Post reported in late March that Cuccinelli had initially failed to disclose, as is required for Virginia elected officials, that he owned more than $10,000 in stock in a single company, Star. About a month later, Cuccinelli announced that he had not reported gifts worth $4,500 from Star CEO Jonnie R. Williams Sr. The gifts were two stays that Cuccinelli and his family had made at Williams's Smith Mountain Lake vacation house, one last summer, and the other over Thanksgiving in 2010, when Williams also supplied a catered turkey dinner. At that time, Cuccinelli also reported two other previously undisclosed gifts, neither from Williams: a chartered flight worth $7,751 for himself and his parents to Southwest Virginia, where Cuccinelli gave a speech, provided by Alpha Natural Resources; and transportation worth $795 from the Federation of American Coal, Energy and Security. The Williams gifts disclosed in April were in addition to others worth nearly $13,000 that Cuccinelli had previously reported receiving from the executive or his company, including another stay at the Roanoke-area lake house in 2011. Democrats have made an issue of Cuccinelli's ties to Star and Williams, whose lavish gifts to McDonnell and his family have cast a shadow on the governor's legacy and political future. The gifts Cuccinelli received from Williams were more modest than those the executive gave to the McDonnells, including a $15,000 shopping spree for first lady Maureen McDonnell, a Rolex watch for the governor and payments or loans of $145,000. But as attorney general, Cuccinelli had legal matters before his office that complicated any entanglements with Williams and Star. Those included representing the state against Star in a civil case challenging a state tax assessment. The office also began prosecuting a former governor's mansion chef who, when charged with embezzling state food and supplies, blew the whistle on what he alleged was an improper relationship between Williams and the McDonnell family. Cuccinelli's office was recently recused from both cases and the attorney general sold his stock in the company. Cuccinelli has said that his senior staff, aware of his connection to Williams, kept him "walled off" from the chef's allegations until last fall. Once his staff informed him, Cuccinelli said he asked Herring to investigate whether the governor had properly reported all gifts. Herring has not concluded that probe. A federal investigation into Williams's relationship with the McDonnells also remains ongoing.