According to a report in politico, Tony Podesta has discovered he is also in the cross hairs of the Special Prosecutor investigation by Robert Mueller. Additionally, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked for the Podesta lobbying group to advance the interests of Ukraine and Russia in Washington DC.
There is some strong DC speculation that Manafort’s earlier indictment may lead to, or have been intended to, leverage cooperation with special counsel Mueller regarding the Podesta firm investigation.
Federal records show two firms doing work on behalf of Paul Manafort’s Ukraine front group beginning in April of 2012: The Podesta Group and Mercury Group.
Despite the lobbying activity neither group was disclosed as legally required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) until April of 2017.
Via Politico Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.The investigation into Podesta and his firm grew out of investigators’ examination of Manafort’s finances. Manafort organized a PR campaign on behalf of a nonprofit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Podesta Group was one of several firms that were paid to do work on the PR campaign to promote Ukraine in the U.S.
Podesta’s decision to leave the firm came on the same day that former Donald Trump campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were indicted on multiple charges, including money laundering, operating as federal agents of the Ukrainian government, failing to disclose overseas bank accounts and making false statements to federal authorities.
Podesta Group filed paperwork with the Justice Department in April stating that it had done work for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine that also benefited the same Ukrainian political party that Manafort once advised. Podesta Group said at the time it believed its client was a European think tank untethered to a political party.
Tony Podesta's brother, John David Podesta is the former chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
Blog Author's Comments: The target is never indicted first, usually last. The media is selling the story that Trump is the big fish, but I believe the DC swamp activity shows they know it's not. The Washington Post throwing Clinton under bus via the leak last week (Fusion GPS funding) now gains context. Swamp perhaps thinks Clinton is Mueller's ultimate target. Hillary Clinton could now be sacrificed by the Independent Counsel to protect Obama and larger deep state operatives from sunlight. But, what if Mueller wants Paul Manafort to flip on Podesta, not anyone else in the Trump administration?
After over five months with at last count 16 lawyers digging for anything they can find and this is all they have come up with? So, is Team Mueller now hunting within the Podesta group, with very close ties to Hillary Clinton? If the special counsel goes into Hillary's trove of crimes, they are sure to find some very serious things to be able to charge her, husband Bill and The Clinton Foundation.
To believe that the swamp creature Mueller and his band of Obama/Clinton donors parading as investigators are white hats out to get the Clinton crime syndicate requires way too much for me to digest. No one knows where Mueller, on the loose, will go next, but I do hope he ends this charade soon so that President Trump’s administration can attempt to do what the president wants to do for the good of the country. I have no doubt that no matter how long Mueller continues what he is doing, he will only spend millions of taxpayer dollars and find zero 'collusion' between Trump and Russia.
