If FBI Director James Comey was trying to calm legislators concerned his agency made a politically motivated decision when he announced Hillary Clinton wouldn’t be prosecuted for her private email server, the latest report by The Wall Street Journal isn’t going to help.
According to that report, a key Clinton ally gave a nearly $500,000 campaign donation to the wife of a high-ranking FBI official, who was running for the Virginia Senate. That FBI official was later put in charge of the bureau’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
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.
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. …
At the time the investigation was launched in July 2015, Mr. McCabe was running the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office, which provided personnel and resources to the Clinton email probe. At the end of July 2015, Mr. McCabe was promoted to FBI headquarters and assumed the No. 3 position at the agency. In February 2016, he became FBI Director James Comey’s second-in-command.
As deputy director, Mr. McCabe was part of the executive leadership team overseeing the Clinton email investigation, though FBI officials say any final decisions on that probe were made by Mr. Comey, who served as a high-ranking Justice Department official in the administration of George W. Bush.
The Clinton campaign has not yet responded to the report, but Donald Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said declared the funding and rapid promotion of McCabe “convenient.”
“Last night’s revelation that close Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe authorized $675,000 to the wife of a top official at the FBI, who conveniently was promoted to deputy director, and helped oversee the investigation into Clinton’s secret server is deeply disturbing and calls into question the entire investigation,” he said. “The fact that this was allowed to occur shows either outright negligent behavior by the FBI or a level of corruption that is beyond belief. The FBI needs to fully address these issues as soon as possible.”
