McAuliffe said on his monthly “Ask the Governor” show on WTOP that he was baffled by media reports that federal investigators were looking at donations for his 2013 campaign for governor and his personal finances. “And they feel, and they do to this day, very confident the guy’s a legitimate donor”.
Advertisement
The FBI is digging into contributions made to McAuliffe’s gubernatorial campaign, which includes a $120,000 donation from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang through his us companies. However, Wang holds USA permanent resident status, according to a spokeswoman, which would make him eligible to donate to McAuliffe’s campaign. Foreign nationals cannot donate to political campaigns inside America, but green card holders can. Neither the Clinton Foundation nor leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is a target of the probe.
According to officials, McAuliffe was not notified that he is a probe target.
McAuliffe hasn’t been approached by investigators, according to sources speaking to CNN, as well as comments by McAuliffe’s lawyer.
“As a matter of policy, the department generally neither confirms nor denies whether a matter is under investigation”, said Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department. “No one had reached out to us”.
He tweeted: “Still early, but having two governors in a row under fed investigation says something very bad about VA’s political culture”.
CNN said that one donor who caught the attention of investigators was Chinese billionaire Wang Wenliang who contributed $120,000.
“It’s odd that it’s been going on for months and the governor’s office claims to not know anything about it”, Halperin said.
McAuliffe told reporters that he, like the public, learned of the probe from that report.
Advertisement
The Chinese billionaire has a history of philanthropy to USA institutions, having donated to New York University, Harvard and environmentalists based in Florida. He has appealed his case, and the Supreme Court is weighing the decision of whether to reverse the court’s conviction. The investigation remains open and ongoing. I didn’t bring him into the Clinton Foundation. Wang has ties to McAuliffe’s close friends, former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
