Terry McAuliffe faces scrutiny after Daily Wire exposes his $250K+ earnings advising Hunton Andrews Kurth, a firm paid $9M by Fairfax County Public Schools to defend administrators in sexual assault cases—including one where a 12-year-old’s rape allegations were ignored until she sued in 2012. The firm now pushes Title IX interpretations shielding schools from liability, clashing with Loudoun County’s reforms, while preparing a Supreme Court case to favor administrators over victims. A juvenile judge’s rare acknowledgment of sexual assault in another Loudoun case underscores systemic failures, revealing McAuliffe’s ties to institutions prioritizing legal protections over student safety. [Automatically generated summary]
I want to interrupt your regular programming to raise awareness for the amazing work our editorial team is doing over here at Daily Wire.
We've launched a new investigative journalism initiative as well as a morning news podcast called Morning Wire, which brings you the news you need to know six days a week.
On a recent episode of Morning Wire, we covered our latest bombshell story in detail.
Last month, Virginia's Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe made headlines when he said that parents shouldn't be involved in what their kids are learning at school.
Our new bombshell report suggests that not only will Terry McAuliffe not be supportive of parents and students, but he'll actively work against them if elected to office.
According to documents uncovered by our investigative team, a law firm that employed McAuliffe and is helping to fund his campaign is being paid millions of dollars to aggressively fight victims of alleged sexual abuse in Virginia schools on behalf of school administrators who the victims claim ignored their pleas for help.
Daily Wire reporter Luke Roziak joins Morning Wire to discuss his findings.
Take a listen.
In a Daily Wire exclusive investigative report, concerning ties have been revealed between Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and a law firm that has been aggressively fighting against alleged sexual assault victims on behalf of schools and school administrators.
Joining us to discuss is Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak.
So Luke, you broke a story this week about Terry McAuliffe.
He's the Democratic candidate running for governor right now in Virginia.
What did you find?
So Terry McAuliffe was employed by a high-dollar law firm called Huntin Andrews Kurth.
What I discovered is this law firm is paid by a school system to represent its interests, which include trying to have cases thrown out where girls allege sexual assault and that school administrators failed to take action.
In light of the recent scandal in Loudoun County, that's a pretty bad look for the campaign and it highlights the competing interests between school systems and parents.
Now, these sexual assault cases are not the ones that you reported on a couple weeks ago in Loudoun County, though, correct?
Right.
This law firm actually works for Fairfax County Public Schools right next door and it's actually handling multiple sexual assault cases just for that district, which really underscores how serious and pervasive this issue is.
So one case I'd like to highlight is about a now 22-year-old woman who's suing the school system and several administrators over incidents that she says occurred when she was 12 years old, back in middle school.
She alleges that she was raped on school grounds, and medical records did find anal tearing at the time.
She allegedly went to administrators about sexual harassment and claims the assistant principal said the suspect, quote, had been in enough trouble and asked her mother to, quote, not ruin a kid's life.
But she says the school district did nothing and the behavior got worse, in part because she was viewed as a snitch and because the perpetrators felt like they weren't going to get in trouble.
So it just kind of snowballed from there until some really horrible allegations.
Now, she's been making these claims since the time, back in 2012.
She'd also filed a complaint with a federal civil rights body, which ordered FCPS to make changes in the school district as a result, some of which Fairfax County schools failed to do.
When she became an adult, just before the statute of limitations ran out, she sued her alleged rapists, the school system, and several school officials for those alleged failures.
Okay, so on to Terry McAuliffe.
How is he involved in all this?
So first, he's actually not even a lawyer.
The law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth hired McAuliffe as an advisor in 2019.
Based on campaign ethics disclosure, he was compensated at least $250,000 recently for services related to cybersecurity slash law.
Now, from 2014 to 2018, the Fairfax school system paid Hunt in about half a million bucks a year.
From 2019 to 2021, the law firm received about $4.4 million, $2.5 million, and then $3 million in each of those years.
So the law firm has received about $9 million from Fairfax schools since 2019.
Right.
They're really big legal bills.
And, you know, people think about special interest as it relates to teachers unions, which actually did give Terry McAuliffe's campaign $1 million, one of his biggest funders.
Those teachers may be expecting to get policies back that are going to benefit them in terms of taxpayer money.
But there's potentially a similar dynamic going on here with this law firm and the school system on behalf of administrators.
FCPS pays Hunt in a lot of money, but it's fighting in court for an aggressive interpretation of Title IX that could actually save administrators money in terms of being sued in cases where allegedly they had some sort of negligence or failed to take action to protect kids.
Title IX Battle00:01:55
Now, I remember when Loudoun County apologized for its handling of the rape there, they mentioned Title IX.
What was that about?
Yeah, that's interesting because the superintendent in Loudoun blamed federal policy for the apparent cover-up in his district, saying that he would lobby Washington to make Title IX more favorable to victims.
The thing is that the law firm connected to the state's prospective governor with support of the Virginia School Board Association and the National School Board Association.
They're all actually pushing for the opposite in a case they want to take to the Supreme Court.
So the law firm where McAuliffe served as an advisor is involved in a Title IX case, and they're arguing on the side of administrators rather than the kids.
Right.
And, you know, they're trying to take this to the Supreme Court where depending on how they rule, that could set a precedent that would affect schools all over the country.
So this could be a really important case.
Luke, before you go, there's been an update on the Loudoun County rape case that you reported on a few weeks ago.
Can you share that with us?
Yeah, so on Monday, the boy accused of raping Scott Smith's daughter appeared in juvenile court where a judge determined that there were, quote, facts sufficient to believe the teen boy committed sexual assault.
That's the equivalent of a guilty verdict in juvenile court.
So it sounds like some justice for that victim and her family.
That's right.
Luke, thanks so much for reporting.
Absolutely.
That's Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Roziak.
This is our second bombshell piece that we've broken recently.
Just a few weeks ago, we broke a major story about the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia covering up reports of sexual abuse in their schools.
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