Hillary Clinton met Chinese billionaire Wang Wenliang, whose involvement with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is at the center of an FBI investigation, during a September 30, 2013 fundraiser at her home in Washington D.C., according to an explosive new report from Time.
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Wang – whose business interests include a construction firm and a soybean export business – made a $60,000 contribution to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign three weeks before the event, according to Time.
Wang also has been a donor to the Clinton foundation, pledging $2 million. Cooper said that the Justice Department told him there had been no findings of wrongdoing by the governor.
McAuliffe is asking residents to sign onto a new website RUonline.virginia.gov to let officials know the level of internet connectivity they have.
One of Wang’s US -based real estate development companies, West Legend, donated $10,000 to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign in March, 2013, and an additional $60,000 in September of that year, according to the non-partisan Virginia Public Access Project. McAuliffe initially told reporters this week he could not remember ever meeting Wang, though he later clarified that his staff had informed him of several likely meetings.
CNN has reported that the connection to Wang was one aspect of the investigation that investigators had looked into but not the full scope of the probe.
McAuliffe told CNN after the story broke that he thinks he has never met Mr. Wenliang.
Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment. According to the Post’s reporting, federal prosecutors are investigating McAuliffe’s personal finances.
Terry McAuliffe talks to the Clintons all the time.
A lawyer for Wang’s company gave an interview in 2012 in which he said that for some companies in certain industries, lobbying state governments is a better strategy than lobbying federal agencies or lawmakers.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe is pointing fingers at the FBI for leaking their investigation into one of his campaign donors.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General issued a report previous year saying a top department official improperly intervened on behalf of foreign investors seeking USA visas in three cases involving prominent Democrats, including McAuliffe.
“He was fully vetted”, McAuliffe said, adding later, “I don’t understand the issue, to be honest with you”.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the Governor declared confidence that neither the Federal Bureau of Investigation nor the Justice Department will find any wrongdoing. But he also came to Wang’s defense, calling him a “fine upstanding individual”. Wang was previously delegate to China’s National People’s Congress, the country’s ceremonial legislature.
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One of Wang’s companies, Dandong Port Group, has a trade deal to ship Virginia soybeans to China.
