Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is attending a fundraiser Monday night with a political operative who was investigated for helping McAuliffe try to “swap” Democratic Party campaign contributions with the Teamsters union, according to a new report by Watchdog.org
Laura Hartigan, McAuliffe’s deputy when he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was accused by Senate investigators of taking part in an unsavory scheme with McAuliffe and Teamsters in 1998.
Hartigan instructed Teamsters, through a memo sent to a Teamsters consultant, to donate $236,000 to Democratic state parties in 1998, according to Senate testimony.
“The contributions were credited to McAuliffe on Democratic tally sheets that keep track of how much money fund-raisers bring in,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
McAuliffe later reportedly attempted to “illegally launder contributions” back to Teamsters president Ron Carey to help Carey win his campaign for the Teamsters presidency against the union’s current president, Jimmy Hoffa Jr.
“Terry McAuliffe and/or other officials of the DNC participated in efforts to engage in a contribution swap scheme with Martin Davis and Carey’s campaign,” according to Senate investigators, whose recommendation for “further investigation” was ignored by the Clinton administration’s Justice Department, according to the Watchdog.org report.
Hartigan’s fundraiser is “closed to the press,” an organizer of the fundraiser told Watchdog.org. The McAuliffe campaign did not immediately return a Daily Caller request for comment.
McAuliffe, who is running against Republican Ken Cuccinelli for the Virginia governorship, admitted to leaving his wife’s hospital bed while she was giving birth to the couple’s son in order to attend a Washington Post party.
