Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, donated almost $500,000 to the campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, wife of Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy director Andrew McCabe.
Dr. McCabe ran for state Senate in Virginia, but lost to Republican incumbent Dick Black. The state Democratic Party, which McAuliffe heavily influenced, donated more than $200,000 to her campaign, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Her husband was promoted to deputy director after her campaign had concluded, and was given "an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton's emails," according to an FBI statement to the Journal.
McAuliffe "supported Jill McCabe because he believed she would be a good state senator. This is a customary practice for Virginia governors," a spokesman for McAuliffe told the Journal.
"Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous."
McCabe was the third-largest recipient of donations from the governor's PAC, Common Good VA. According to the governor, he could only recall meeting McCabe's husband once, when he urged McCabe to run for office.
"Once I decided to run," Dr. McCabe said, according to the Journal, "my husband had no formal role in my campaign other than to be a supportive husband to me and our children. As a federal official . . . everyone who participated in our campaign understood and respected that he could not participate."
Gov. McAuliffe is currently under investigation by the FBI's Washington field office over contributions to his gubernatorial campaign from Chinese-born businessman Wang Wenliang, CBS News reports.
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