clinton mccauliffe
© Still4Hillthe Clintons at McAuliffe's 2014 inauguration as Richmond VA governor.
The Wall Street Journal just broke a pretty big story. Democratic campaign records show that Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's political action committee, Common Good VA, donated $467,500 (plus $207,788 in mailers) to Dr. Jill McCabe's unsuccessful state Senate campaign, more than a third of all funds raised by McCabe for her campaign. Why is that important?

Well, first a trip down memory lane, back to July 7 of this year. Here's South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy grilling FBI Directer Jim Comey, with Comey confirming that Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly about her private email server, her deleted emails, her gross negligence with classified information, and more:


Clinton obviously showed intent and consciousness of guilt, as Gowdy points out. She was, and is, obviously guilty. But still, Clinton was let off without even a slap on the wrist, while people in much lower positions of power suffer much harsher consequences for much less egregious behavior of the same type.

Why did the FBI's investigation not result in criminal proceedings? Well, there was that curious case of Bill Clinton's "chance meeting" with DOJ Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in late June, just three days before the FBI revealed that it would not bring charges against Clinton. Judge Napolitano commented in September:
... in Mrs. Clinton's case, the hierarchy of the Department of Justice removed itself from the chain of command because of the orchestrated impropriety of Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Bill Clinton, who met in private on the attorney general's plane at a time when both Bill and Hillary Clinton were subjects of FBI criminal investigations. That left the FBI to have the final say about prosecution — or so the FBI and the Department of Justice would have us all believe.

It is hard to believe that the FBI was free to do its work, and it is probably true that the FBI was restrained by the White House early on. There were numerous aberrations in the investigation. There was no grand jury; no subpoenas were issued; no search warrants were served. Two people claimed to have received immunity, yet the statutory prerequisite for immunity — giving testimony before a grand or trial jury — was never present.

... many members of Congress do not believe that the FBI acted free of political interference ...
In fact, many FBI and DOJ employees were reportedly furious at the decision not to prosecute. So how did that happen? Jill McCabe might have a little something to do with it, or at least point in the direction of the ties that bind among Washington players - ties forged with wads of cash.

Jill is married to Andrew McCabe, the current deputy director of the FBI. McAuliffe, who funded Jill's state Senate campaign, has been a longtime Clinton ally, raising an unprecedented $275 million for Bill Clinton during his presidency and guaranteeing the Clintons' $1.35 million mortgage for their home. He was a one-time Clinton Foundation board member, and he chaired the DNC from 2001 to 2005, and Hillary's presidential campaign in 2008. McAuliffe is no stranger to scandal, either, and was even investigated by McCabe's FBI office during the same period over donations reportedly made on behalf of a Chinese businessman, among other things. Citing the WSJ, RT reports:
"[Gov. McAuliffe] supported Jill McCabe because he believed she would be a good state senator. This is a customary practice for Virginia governors... Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous," said McAuliffe's spokesman.

The FBI also denied any wrongdoing by emphasizing that as a federal employee McCabe had no involvement in his wife's campaign and was promoted to Deputy Director of the bureau after the election was over. "[Mr. McCabe] played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind", said the FBI in a statement.

"Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton's emails." ...
  • March 2015: News of Clinton's private server used to send and receive classified emails is revealed, that same month [5 days later] Dr. McCabe announces candidacy.
  • July 2015: FBI investigation into Clinton's emails in launched. McCabe, who was running FBI's Washington, DC office (which had a part in the probe) is promoted to No. 3 position at FBI headquarters and joins the team overseeing the Clinton investigation. [The field office he ran provided personnel and resources for the probe.]
  • September 2015: McAuliffe donates to Dr. McCabe campaign.
  • February 2016: Mr. McCabe becomes FBI Director James Comey's second-in-command.
  • July 2016: FBI announces decision to not press charges against Clinton.
What the above timeline leaves out is that McAuliffe was the one to urge McCabe to run for the state Senate in March 2015, five days after the NYT broke the story on Hillary's classified emails. The fact that McCabe did not recuse himself from the investigation says something. His ties with McAuliffe via his wife scream conflict of interest, given McAuliffe's close ties with Clinton, the subject of the FBI's investigation. As Townhall.com puts it:
There are perfectly plausible explanations for why all of this is innocent and not at all nefarious. But there are also entirely reasonable concerns that perhaps should have raised more red flags about Mr. McCabe's involvement in the Clinton case from the very beginning. Couple this story with (a) the Attorney General's secretive tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton during the probe's final stages, (b) the bizarre and unusual grants of immunity and side deals dished out by investigators to key scandal players, and (c) James Comey's unconvincing "no intent" defense under tough questioning, and it isn't hard to understand why many Americans might draw the conclusion that Mrs. Clinton's non-indictment was, well... rigged.
That pretty much sums it up. Either this was all a series of very convenient coincidences, or something more sinister. As soon as the email scandal broke, it would have been totally natural for the Clinton crowd to maneuver someone into a position to prevent any fallout if it came to that and/or to forge a connection with someone well-placed enough to exert that influence. Whether or not that happened is impossible to tell at this point without an investigation, but it sure points to the almost incestuous nature of politics. And that's why criminals in high places rarely if ever pay for their crimes.

The story that should be all over the media is this: Was Hillary not charged by the FBI over the confidential email scandal because the wife of the Deputy Director of the FBI who was leading the investigation received over $700,000 from a very close friend of the Clintons?