I have a slightly different take on the “bribe” angle. I think that both McCabes were Democrat/Hillary loyalists well known to MacAuliffe. MacAuliffe needed a sacrificial lamb to run against an entrenched Republican incumbent; no one was jumping at a chance to lose, and he didn’t want to mess up other Dem alignments by forcing someone already in office to run and lose (VA districts are so gerrymandered they almost guarantee party retention, absent a rogue wave election. 2015 had nothing driving it).
I think Dr. Jill McCabe was flattered into running as a favor to MacAuliffe, so long as he provided the funding and professional management. Promoting Andrew McCabe was partly to reward the McCabes for this favor, and partly to put a committed Hillary Democrat in a position to help with her criminal problems.
Researchers would do well to look at the McCabes’ political history before this episode. MacAuliffe didn’t pick them out of the phone book. What donations had they made? Were they involved with Hillary’s 2008 or 2016 campaigns already? What did Andrew McCabe disclose to the FBI about his political activities?
As Jim Baker once said “ I like shooting turkeys in May”