Democrat Terry McAuliffe held a fundraiser at a Washington, D.C., house owned by Bill and Hillary Clinton on Monday night, reviving controversy that has dogged his relationship with the dynastic Democratic family during his ongoing run for Virginia governor.
Attendees included former Clinton aides Paul Begala and James Carville; founder of left-wing activist group Media Matters and pro-Clinton Super PAC American Bridge David Brock; Center for American Progress chairman John Podesta; former Florida governor Charlie Crist; and Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton and wife of disgraced former congressman and failed mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.
The after-party was held at the nearby home of Joe Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary under Bill Clinton.
As notable as the events’ attendees were, one individual who was not spotted: Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clinton’s brother.
Members of the College Republicans stood outside the event holding signs asking, "Where is Anthony Rodham?"
Rodham is an executive at Gulf Coast Funds Management, a company that helped bankroll Terry McAuliffe’s nascent electric car company, GreenTech Automotive.
GreenTech is now under federal investigation for its use of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) EB-5 program, which offers U.S. visas for foreign investors in American companies.
Gulf Coast specializes in helping companies obtain EB-5 financing. It is at the center of a federal investigation, which officials in Virginia warned could amount to a "visa-for-sale scheme with potential national-security implications."
DHS investigators are probing interactions between Rodham and Alejandro Mayorkas, the director U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
According to documents released by the DHS inspector general’s office, Rodham directly lobbied Mayorkas to approve EB-5 visa applications that were awaiting USCIS consideration.
"USCIS’s undue delay in issuing a decision … continues to threaten the ongoing operations of GTA [GreenTech Automotive] because GTA relies on EB-5 investors as a key source of funding for its projects, and the delay is hampering our ability to bring in new EB-5 investors," Rodham wrote in an email to Mayorkas on Jan. 29, 2013.
Mayorkas helped Rodham win approval of some of those applications despite apparent national security concerns and previous rejections of those applications.
"Mr. McAuliffe’s GreenTech career … fits a pattern of tying into the Clinton network," the New York Times noted in a report on his involvement with the company.
Bill Clinton himself has traveled to China on GreenTech’s behalf. GreenTech founder Charles Wang joined McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton at a State Department luncheon in 2012.
McAuliffe’s use of his extensive political rolodex to advance his business career has been the target of frequent attacks by his Republican opponent, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
''I've met all of my business contacts through politics," McAuliffe has said. Cuccinelli quipped during last week’s gubernatorial debate that if McAauliffe is elected, "we're gonna have to change the state motto from ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’ to ‘Quid Pro Quo.’"