Monday on Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” Breitbart editor at large Peter Schweizer, executive producer of the documentary based on his bestselling book “Clinton Cash,” reacted to the news that sitting Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) was the subject of an investigation regarding the legality of donations made to his gubernatorial campaign.
Schweizer told host Megyn Kelly that McAuliffe’s investigation was a part of a broader one into the Clinton Foundation and asked the question if McAuliffe would be held to the same standard his predecessor former Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), both of which who themselves the subject of the Department of Justice corruption probe.
Transcript as follows:
MEGYN KELLY: Joining us now is more of Peter Schweizer, the author of “Clinton Cash” and president of the Government Accountability Institute. Peter, good to see you again. So, explain this in terms the viewers can understand.
PETER SCHWEIZER: Well, I think it’s really an investigation, a broader investigation that’s going on about the Clinton Foundation. Now, Fox News has reported as have others that since May of last year, the FBI has been investigating not just the e-mail server but also the Clinton Foundation. I would note that the Terry McAuliffe investigation appears to have been launched at the same time as they were investigating.
KELLY: Yeah, they say a year ago it was launched. CNN have reported that.
SCHWEIZER: Yeah, I reported that. Exactly. I would dare say I think the McAuliffe investigation is about more than just the question of foreign donations. Mr. Wang appears to have permanent resident status, which means he can contribute to campaigns and it doesn’t take a year to determine a technical question like that. This to me has all the markings of the broader investigation of pay to play and favors being exchanged for money flowing to the Clinton Foundation and in this case, to Terry McAuliffe.
KELLY: So, just to put a point on it, the theory would be that Terry McAuliffe got some campaign donations to help him out in his gubernatorial run and then said donor would make a big donation to the Clinton Foundation and everybody walks away happy on the Clinton/McAuliffe side.
SCHWEIZER: That’s right. And if favors were done for Mr. Wang on their behalf, that I think is the critical question. What we know is that the FBI has been looking at this for a year. There is this pattern of behavior. The Clinton team has put out this, you know, there’s no smoking gun argument, which is really a misnomer.
I mean, Megyn, you would know better than I would because of your legal training. You don’t need a smoking gun. If you look at Terry McAuliffe’s predecessor in Virginia, Governor McDonnell, he is on jail. There was no smoking gun per se in that case. Senator Menendez of New Jersey of course facing prosecution. There’s no smoking gun per se in that case.
If there was a pattern of behavior in which money has flowed to politicians or their family members or to charitable foundations connected to them and they end up doing or taking beneficial actions on behalf of those donors, that can be prosecuted and I think the question here Megyn is are the Clintons and the McAuliffes of the world going to be held to the same standard as the Governor McDonnell or Senator Menendez or do they get a pass where other politicians do not.
KELLY: And just to underscore, in this particular case, there is no allegation that the Clinton Foundation did anything improper. The probe has focused on McAuliffe and the electoral campaign donations according to the officials in this case. I understand your point. And McAuliffe and his people have said they don’t know anything about it, that they have no knowledge of it and they have not been contacted at least as of this point, although they also say this man’s donations were lawful. Peter great to see you.
SCHWEIZER: Thank you.
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