BOISE, Idaho — A San Diego businessman with ties to Idaho is under the White House microscope after allegations he may have been part of a federal "pay-to-play" scheme.
Doug Manchester is the founder of Manchester Financial Group, which previously owned the Whitetail Club and Shore Lodge in McCall. An ice rink in the city also sports his name after he donated the money to build it.
Manchester was in the running to become U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas until recent allegations about possible illegal activity put a halt to that.
The billionaire businessman from San Diego was nominated by President Trump for the position in 2017, 2018 and again in January of 2019 but the nomination has remained stalled in the Senate.
At the end of October, Manchester withdrew his consideration for the job, citing personal reasons. Then, in early November, the White House announced it was formally withdrawing his nomination.
This comes after a recent email came to light which suggests Manchester may have been trying to exchange money for political favors.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) told KTVB by phone on Wednesday that the email had been sent from the Republican National Committee to Manchester, asking for a $500,000 donation for its fundraising efforts.
“So there was an email chain and the chain was copied to my chief of staff, who brought it to me,” Risch said.
RELATED: 'I'm surprised it took this long': Idaho Sen. Jim Risch weighs in on Trump impeachment inquiry
A few other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also saw that email, according to Risch, who chairs the committee.
Risch confirmed Manchester had emailed the following response: “As you know I am not supposed to do any, but my wife is sending a contribution for $100,000. Assuming I get voted out of the [Foreign Relations Committee] on Wednesday to the floor we need you to have the majority leader bring it to a majority vote … Once confirmed, I our [sic] family will respond!”
According to Risch, it was typical protocol to forward that email on to the White House attorneys.
“I think [the email] is pretty straightforward as to the issues that are raised there,” he said. “To me this was straightforward protocol. When you see something like this it should go to the lawyers for further analysis and then the lawyers can handle it from there.”
So Risch passed it on to the White House.
When asked if he sees himself as a whistleblower, Risch said "not at all" - he was simply doing his job.
“Usually whistleblowers are done in the cloak of darkness and dead of night," he said. "There was nothing secret about this."
Risch said anyone else on that email chain probably did the same and the lawyers likely got multiple copies of the email.
KTVB reached out to Manchester for comment but did not hear back. In an interview with CBS News, Manchester said his wife had donated the $100,000 out of a separate account and he claimed the situation is not what people think.