Collusion Between McAuliffe, Clinton and the FBI?
As if the story couldn’t get any more surreal…
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is a longtime henchman of the Clintons who has a history of, among a myriad of other things, arranging nefarious campaign finance deals. He is currently under investigation by FBI and Justice Department officials for accepting campaign funds from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang — a possible breach of finance rules. Incidentally, a new report implicates McAuliffe in the recently concluded investigation of Hillary Clinton and her use of an unsecure server that was led by … the FBI.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email use.”
The report continues: “Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI. The Virginia Democratic Party, over which Mr. McAuliffe exerts considerable control, donated an additional $207,788 worth of support to Dr. McCabe’s campaign in the form of mailers, according to the records. That adds up to slightly more than $675,000 to her candidacy from entities either directly under Mr. McAuliffe’s control or strongly influenced by him.”
The McAuliffe administration claims, “Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous.” But is it really? As National Review’s Jim Geraghty observes, “Andrew McCabe might be the straightest arrow in the entire quiver of the Bureau, and Mrs. McCabe might have never even discussed the Clinton prosecution with him. But if your spouse is going to be involved in politics, you should not oversee criminal investigations of political figures. It will always present the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Indeed. As we noted back in May, when news of the FBI and DOJ investigation into campaign finance fraud broke, “The connection McAuliffe has with the Clinton machine cannot be overstated. Before he was governor, the man worked as the director for the Clinton Foundation for free.” In other words, his murky dealings with Wenliang may only be part of the story. Did McAuliffe’s illegal actions include colluding with FBI officials like Director James Comey and Andrew McCabe in a backroom deal that led to Hillary’s escaping prosecution? Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s for the FBI and DOJ to determine. And if the answer is yes, the question becomes whether McAuliffe gets to walk too. Talk about coming full circle.
On the other hand, there is a revolt brewing at the FBI and DOJ among career officials who were left flabbergasted at Hillary’s Great Escape. They will be even more livid to know that collusion possibly extends to every level of government. In the end, Comey, McCabe and McAuliffe may have painted themselves into a corner. At least we can hope.