Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday he has met a Chinese businessman accused of illegally donating to his 2013 campaign “once or twice” — one day after telling reporters he had never met the contributor.
“I’m not even sure if I’ve ever met the person, to be honest with you,” McAuliffe said Tuesday of Wang Wenliang, the campaign and Clinton Foundation donor whose $120,000 contribution to McAuliffe’s campaign is reportedly under investigation by the FBI.
But the embattled Democrat stated Wednesday morning during an interview on WTOP radio that he had indeed met Wang.
“To Mr. Wang, who I probably met once or twice in my life, I’m not exactly sure,” McAuliffe said before defending Wang as a “fine, upstanding individual.”
McAuliffe criticized the Justice Department leak that alerted the media to the investigation into his campaign finances.
“It is very unfortunate that our institutions of integrity, like Justice and the FBI, would leak information,” he said. “They should be held to a higher standard.”
McAuliffe is a longtime friend of both Bill and Hillary Clinton and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as well as a former board member of the Clinton Global Initiative.
