WASHINGTON — Just months after the FBI launched an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, Democratic Party operatives made a generous donation to the political campaign of the wife of the FBI official who would eventually oversee that investigation.

The FBI ultimately cleared Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing, creating the impression that the Democrats may have bribed the Bureau to keep their nominee out of trouble.

According to a report published Monday by The Wall Street Journal, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time associate of the Clintons, helped funnel over $675,000 of donations into the 2015 Virginia state Senate campaign of Jill McCabe, the wife of Andrew McCabe, who is now the deputy director of the FBI. Of the total, $467,500 came directly from Common Good VA, McAuliffe’s PAC, while an additional $207,788 came out of the coffers of the Virginia Democratic Party, over which McAuliffe exerts almost total control.

Devlin Barrett, a Wall Street Journal reporter who covers the Justice Department, noted that Andrew McCabe was promoted as deputy director after the donations were made. He added:

“Mr. McAuliffe and other state party leaders recruited Dr. McCabe to run, according to party officials. She lost the election to incumbent Republican Dick Black.”

According to Barrett, the donations represented about one-third of Jill McCabe’s total campaign war chest. On Twitter, Barrett offered a simplified timeline of events:

apparently needs underlining: FBI probe of Clinton email was launched in July 2015. Big McAuliffe donations to FBI spouse 2 months later 1/2 — Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) October 24, 2016

doesn't mean they are connected. but don't misstate the order of events: server found, campaign launched, email probe, donations, promotion — Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) October 24, 2016

A McAuliffe spokesperson told the Journal that the governor “supported Jill McCabe because he believed she would be a good state senator.” The spokesperson added: “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 FBI also denied any allegations of impropriety. According to the Journal:

“The FBI said in a statement that during his wife’s campaign Mr. McCabe ‘played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind. Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails.’”

In an editorial also published on Monday, the Journal called the FBI’s denials into question. “[E]vidence keeps turning up suggesting that the FBI probe into her emails was influenced by political favoritism and double standards,” the editors wrote.

The editorial continued:

“All of this asks voters to believe that Mr. McCabe as the No. 3 official at the FBI had nothing to do with the biggest, most sensitive case at that agency. This strains credulity. Before he became No. 3 at the FBI Mr. McCabe ran the bureau’s Washington, D.C. field office that provided resources to the Clinton probe.

The editors suggested this was the latest in a long line of special privileges for Clinton which would not be granted to a normal criminal suspect.

They wrote:

“Director Comey, the self-styled Boy Scout, somehow didn’t think any of this would look suspicious? Add this to the list of special treatment for Mrs. Clinton: no grand jury, grants of immunity to her aides, no interview until the last minute, a special exonerating public declaration, and a pre-Labor Day dump of damaging FBI notes.”

In May, CNN reported that McAuliffe faced a federal investigation into illegal campaign contributions from Wang Wenliang, a Chinese businessman who has also donated generously to the Clinton Foundation. Wang was a member of China’s national legislature until September, when he was expelled for his involvement in a cash-for-votes scheme.

Regardless of whether the governor intended the donations to the Jill McCabe campaign as a bribe, it’s another sign of the close ties between the Washington elite. Indeed, the governor is known for his skill at leveraging personal relationships for financial advantage. As he told The New York Times in 1999, “I’ve met all of my business contacts through politics. It’s all interrelated.”