Clinton pal under FBI campaign probe is champion fundraiser

He once wrestled an 8-foot alligator in exchange for a campaign contribution. He set records for fundraising hauls. He was, in the words of a grateful Al Gore, “the greatest fundraiser in the history of the universe.”

Now Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe – a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, major party fundraiser, businessman and longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton loyalist – finds federal investigators looking at donations made to his 2013 gubernatorial campaign.

McAuliffe said Tuesday that the donor in question had been “fully vetted” by his legal team and he was “very confident” the investigation would turn up no wrongdoing.

But the inquiry by the FBI and the Department of Justice stands to rekindle some of the same controversies that dogged the Clintons in the 1990s, and it comes just as Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has sought to revive allegations against Bill Clinton as he prepares to run against Hillary Clinton.

Few played a more important role in raising Clinton dollars than the gregarious McAuliffe: He boasted in the late 1990s that he and his staff had raised $275 million – an unprecedented sum at the time – for various Clinton causes, including two elections, Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund and his presidential library.

McAuliffe, who chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008, also raised money for her race for a Senate seat in New York, even pledging in 1999 to put up $1.35 million in cash to secure a mortgage on a New York home as she geared up for the race.

And it was McAuliffe – then serving as DNC finance chairman – who authored a memo in 1993 about improving ties with Democratic donors by suggesting that President Bill Clinton invite them to breakfast, lunch, golf games or morning jogs. He wrote nothing about sleepovers, but the idea for them was mentioned in notes that were later written on the document, and scandal erupted when it was revealed that the administration was using overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom to court high-dollar donors.

“It’s very difficult for anyone who is a leading fundraiser, who also invents brand-new ways of doing fundraising, to not get themselves in ethical transgressions,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a government watchdog group. “And Terry McAuliffe is certainly a prolific fundraiser for the Democratic Party and for himself.”

McAuliffe has written that he got his start as a Democratic fundraiser as a 6-year-old. That’s when his father, the treasurer of the Onondaga County Democratic Party in his home state of New York, posted his son at the front door at the party’s annual dinner with strict instructions:

“Terry, if they don’t give you the money, they don’t get in the door,” McAuliffe recalled his father saying. “No exceptions.”

McAuliffe got his professional start raising money for President Jimmy Carter’s re-election, becoming the campaign’s national finance director. One of the contributions: $15,000 from Seminole Chief Jim Billie of Florida, who pledged to donate the money if McAuliffe wrestled a 260-pound alligator for three minutes. McAuliffe did, and he and the reptile later made a magazine cover.

McAuliffe also raised money in the 1980s for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee before working his way up to become Bill Clinton’s top fundraiser, serving as the national finance chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election committee in 1996.

In 2000, McAuliffe earned the “greatest” accolade from Gore after orchestrating what was billed as the biggest political fundraiser ever: a whopping $26.5 million in three hours for the Democratic National Committee.

McAuliffe also broke fundraising records when he became the DNC chairman, leaving the party in the black when he left in 2005.

He ran unsuccessfully for governor in Virginia in 2009, but won the race in 2013. According to CNN, among the McAuliffe donations that drew the interest of investigators was $120,000 from a Chinese businessman, Wang Wenliang, through his U.S. businesses. The network noted that “Wang was previously delegate to China’s National People’s Congress, the country’s ceremonial legislature.”

CNN also reported that investigators have scrutinized McAuliffe’s time as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a vehicle of the charitable foundation set up by Bill Clinton. The network said there was no allegation that the foundation had done anything improper.

Several donors to McAuliffe’s campaign, including Wang, have also donated to the Clinton charitable group.

“I think we travel in the same circles,” McAuliffe said in Virginia. “I’ve traveled the world with President Clinton and we have a lot of the same friends.”

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Clinton pal under FBI campaign probe is champion fundraiser."