Bundlers for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign joined Clinton ally and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe in donating to the state senate campaign of Jill McCabe.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on donations from Common Good VA, McAuliffe's political action committee, to McCabe's Virginia state senate campaign in 2015. McCabe is the wife of Andrew McCabe, the FBI deputy director who helped in the investigation into Clinton's email practices.
McAuliffe contributed $467,500 to McCabe's campaign through his PAC, making her the third-largest recipient of contributions from McAuliffe in 2015. The Virginia Democratic Party provided an additional $207,788 to McCabe in the form of mailers, the Wall Street Journal noted.
However, McAuliffe was not the only Clinton backer to contribute to McCabe's campaign. Four top bundlers for Clinton-related efforts combined to give McCabe more than $130,000.
Fredrick D. Schaufeld, an investment banker and venture capitalist, sits on Hillary Clinton's National Finance Committee along with his wife, Karen. Individuals who raise or contribute at least $100,000 for Hillary for America, the Hillary Victory Fund, the Hillary Action Fund, or a combination of those three entities earn a spot on the committee.
Schaufeld contributed $65,332 to McCabe's campaign, public records shows. A total of $55,000 went to McCabe between June and late October 2015—the same time that Common Good VA flooded McCabe's campaign with nearly a half million in contributions.
Schaufeld was the fourth largest donor to McCabe's campaign behind only McAuliffe's PAC, the Democratic Party of Virginia, and Planned Parenthood's Virginia affiliate. McCabe was the top recipient of campaign cash from Schaufeld last year.
Karen Schaufeld, Fredrick's wife, contributed $10,849 to McCabe in October.
Sonjia Smith, who sits on Hillary Clinton's National Finance Committee alongside her husband Michael Bills, donated $45,000 to McCabe's campaign. Smith was the fifth largest donor to McCabe, right behind Fredrick Shaufeld.
Smith's husband, Bills, donated $15,000 to McCabe in August 2015.
In all, McCabe raised $1.6 million for her unsuccessful Virginia state senate race.
McAuliffe's PAC, the Virginia Democratic Party, and donors who have bundled at least six figures for Clinton combined to provide $881,469 in funding to McCabe last year, or half of the amount she raised during her race.
A spokesman for McAuliffe told the Wall Street Journal the governor supported McCabe's campaign because he thought she would make a good state senator and that the assumption he donated in order to influence her husband's behavior at the FBI was "ridiculous."
"Any insinuation that his support was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous," the spokesman said.
None of the Clinton bundlers immediately responded to requests for comment.