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Clinton Campaign Manager Silent on McAuliffe FBI Investigation

Robby Mook was at helm of McAuliffe campaign being probed by feds

Robby Mook
Robby Mook / AP
May 31, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, has remained silent on the federal investigation into the campaign he ran previously for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia.

It was announced last week that McAuliffe, the self-proclaimed best friend of Bill Clinton who was chairman of Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential campaign, is under federal investigation for, among other things, a large contribution his gubernatorial campaign received from a Chinese billionaire.

The investigation has the potential to damage Clinton’s presidential campaign despite McAuliffe's best attempts at damage control—he stated that the investigation has "nothing to do" with the Clintons just as news (and video) broke that he brought the donor in question to a fundraiser at the Clinton's Washington, D.C. home.

Mook managed McAuliffe’s 2013 campaign so well that he was tapped to do the same for the Clinton campaign. McAuliffe said that Mook was tasked with uniting all the people "in Clinton world" for the presidential bid.

"In Clinton world there are a lot of friends, a lot of people who want to help, and what [Mook] is able to do is direct all of their energy in a positive way," McAuliffe told Time.

One of those friends was Wang Wenliang. Wang’s donation to the McAuliffe campaign came three weeks before they showed up together for the fundraiser at Clinton's house. Less than a month later, Wang's company gave its first $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. It contributed a total of $2 million to the foundation, according to Time.

The Clinton campaign has not responded to multiple inquiries about whether Mook has been contacted by the FBI or whether he plans to comment on the investigation into his previous campaign work.

The Clinton campaign also did not respond to Time. McAuliffe says he hasn't been in touch with the Clinton campaign.

Much of Mook's core team on the McAuliffe campaign is now working for the Clinton campaign. Many of the operatives currently employed by the Clinton campaign used positions on McAuliffe's PAC and in the state party as seat warmers to bridge the gap between the two campaigns, according to the Washington Post.

McAuliffe's niece, Marisa McAuliffe, was one of the first staffers to be paid by Clinton's campaign, receiving payments from the campaign before it was officially launched.

McAuliffe is being represented by the Clinton campaign’s general counsel, Marc Elias.