Story highlights Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is the subject of a federal investigation contributions 
 
 MacAuliffe has not been contacted by authorities, but a spokesman said he will fully cooperate if he is 
 
 Washington (CNN) Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and prosecutors from the Justice Department's public integrity unit, U.S. officials briefed on the probe say. 
 
 The investigation dates to at least last year and has focused, at least in part, on whether donations to his gubernatorial campaign violated the law, the officials said. 
 
 McAuliffe wasn't notified by investigators that he is a target of the probe, according to the officials. 
 
 "The Governor will certainly cooperate with the government if he is contacted about it," said Marc Elias, attorney for McAuliffe campaign, in a statement to CNN. 
 
 As part of the probe, the officials said, investigators have scrutinized McAuliffe's time as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a vehicle of the charitable foundation set up by former President Bill Clinton. 
 
 JUST WATCHED McAuliffe, after winning the governor's mansion in 2013 Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH McAuliffe, after winning the governor's mansion in 2013 03:37 
 
 Read More ||||| The legal team for former Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) wasted no time in filing legal motions Tuesday challenging the legitimacy of the criminal indictment handed up against him in federal court in Richmond, charging him with wire fraud, bank fraud, extortion and conspiracy. 
 
 In trying to paint the ex-governor's actions as unexceptional rather than corrupt, McDonnell's legal team invokes the names of President Barack Obama and former Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), arguing that Obama has traded official appointments for political gifts and that as governor Kaine accepted far more in personal gifts than McDonnell did. 
 
 "The President routinely participates in corporate events which lend credibility to his major benefactors, invites benefactors to events at the White House, allows his photo to be taken with benefactors, and includes benefactors in policy discussions with senior administration officials. Likewise, Governor McDonnell’s predecessor, Governor Kaine, took thousands of dollars in gifts during his time in office, while often taking actions to help those benefactors," McDonnell lawyers John Brownlee and Henry Asbill wrote in a motion filed just hours after McDonnell's indictment (and posted here.) "Politics is replete with examples of major benefactors receiving more substantial government benefits than anything suggested here." 
 
 (WATCH: McDonnell's political career from campaign to indictment) 
 
 The motion goes on to note reports that Obama has appointed numerous donors to various ambassadorships and that he has appeared at the businesses of major donors, as when he visited Jeffrey Katzenberg's Dreamworks SKG studio in Hollywood in November. 
 
 McDonnell's motion, which is billed as a request for grand jury recordings but appears to be a vehicle to quickly rebut the case in the media, goes on to argue that previous Virginia governors have done precisely what he is alleged to have done, but never faced federal charges. 
 
 "Governor McDonnell’s predecessors engaged in indistinguishable conduct, further negating any inference that Governor McDonnell acted with corrupt intent. Virginia law does not limit the amount of gifts that a political official can receive and, in fact, it expressly exempts from criminal prosecution the receipt of gifts with a frequency that gives rise to an appearance of misuse of office. It is consequently routine for Virginia politicians to accept large gifts and donations, and the mere acceptance of such gifts cannot support an inference of corrupt intent," writes McDonnell's legal team, which also accuses prosecutors of seeking to "criminalize democratic politics." 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: McDonnell and wife indicted) 
 
 McDonnell's lawyers also filed a second motion seeking official access evidence that could undercut the case against their client. The motion argues that one event prosecutors view as an official favor for Williams and Star Scientific, an August 2011 lunch at the governor's mansion, was primarily organized by first lady Maureen McDonnell's chief of staff Mary Shea Sutherland. 
 
 "At the same time Ms. Sutherland was organizing the lunch event at the Mansion, she was secretly planning to leave her government employment and return to a job at her former public relations firm, Benedetti & Farris. In anticipation of that move, Ms. Sutherland began seeking to ingratiate herself with Mr. Williams in order to obtain a lucrative consulting contract once she reentered the private sector," McDonnell's lawyers argue in the so-called Brady motion (posted here). "If, as the available evidence suggests, Ms. Sutherland was the driving force behind events that the government has focused upon (such as the Mansion lunch), that is plainly exculpatory." 
 
 Read more about: Justice Department, Bob McDonnell, Tim Kaine, Corruption, Virginia, Star Scientific, Jonnie Williams
– Not only are the FBI and Justice Dept. investigating Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe—they've been doing so for at least a year without him knowing, CNN reports. The investigation is at least partly trying to determine whether the Democrat received illegal donations during his 2013 gubernatorial campaign, officials say. The donations in question include $120,000 from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang, a former delegate to China's National People's Congress who gave to McAuliffe's campaign through a US business. A Wang spokeswoman says he's a US permanent resident, which would make his contributions legal. "Neither the Governor nor his former campaign has knowledge of this matter, but as reported, contributions to the campaign from Mr. Wang were completely lawful," says McAuliffe-campaign attorney Marc Elias. Wang has also donated $2 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, where McAuliffe was a board member (the initiative is part of a charitable foundation established by Bill Clinton). In fact McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton are close friends, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports—so close that Politico says there's been talk of McAuliffe as her VP pick. The federal investigation into McAuliffe comes just a year after Virginia's previous governor, Bob McDonnell, was imprisoned on corruption charges.