Tony Podesta Resigns Under Scrutiny, FBI Focus Could Be Manafort-Podesta

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Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group and brother of former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, is resigning from his lobbying company. This follows reports that Podesta and the firm are or were under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The Podesta Group was one of several firms that worked on a campaign called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. The campaign was led by Manafort and promoted Ukraine’s image in the West.

According to Politico, which first reported the story, Podesta will be handing over full operational and financial control to the company’s CEO Kimberly Fritts.

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.

The Podesta investigation is an outcome of the Manafort and Russia election interference investigation.

The Podesta Group is reported to have helped Russia gain control of the US’s most productive uranium mine.

The Podesta Group was retained by the Russia-controlled firm UraniumOne in 2012, 2014, and 2015, to lobby Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The lobbying firm was paid a total of $180,000 according to public records.

As it was first detailed in the New York Times bestselling book Clinton CashUranium One — which hired the Podesta Group — is the firm that funneled millions to the Clinton Foundation as the Russian government gained ownership of the company.

According to the New York Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “goal of controlling much of the global uranium supply chain.”

Bill Clinton was also given $500,000 “for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock,” the Times report said.

According to the Daily Caller, Uranium One “paid the Podesta Group $40,000 to lobby the State Department, the Senate, the National Park Service, and the National Security Council for ‘international mining projects,’ according to a July 20, 2012 filing.”

Tucker Carlson reported from a source, who said he was a senior employee in the Podesta Group, that the investigation is about Manafort-Podesta not Manafort-Trump. They are the central figures in the investigation. We have yet to find out if this is true, but so far the source appears to be accurate as Fox News investigates.

In March, The Daily Caller reported The Podesta Group was awarded $170,000 by the Russian Sberbank CIB in 2016 to fight sanctions tied to the Magnitsky Act. Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John, was paid the money over a six month period as a key lobbyist for Russia’s largest bank.

 


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