Mueller Now Investigating Democratic Lobbyist Tony Podesta

NBC News ^ | 10/23/2017 | Tom Winter and Julia Ainsley

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WASHINGTON — Tony Podesta and the Podesta Group are now the subjects of a federal investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, three sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The probe of Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm grew out of Mueller's inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to the sources. As special counsel, Mueller has been tasked with investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU). Podesta's company was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, which promoted Ukraine's image in the West.

The sources said the investigation into Podesta and his company began as more of a fact-finding mission about the ECMU and Manafort's role in the campaign, but has now morphed into a criminal inquiry into whether the firm violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA.

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The Podesta Group filed a FARA registration for its work with ECMU only after the payments were reported by the media. Manafort's firm also filed a FARA registration after media reports in June disclosed its work in Ukraine from 2012 through 2014.

The ECMU was reportedly backed by the Party of Regions, the pro-Russian and oligarch-funded Ukrainian political party for which Manafort worked as a consultant, and which paid his firm millions. Viktor Yanukovych of the Party of Regions, a Manafort client, was president of Ukraine during the ECMU campaign, which ran from 2012 to 2014. He fled the country in 2014.

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Wait, what?

[philippa]

This happened between 2012-2014. Was John Podesta involved with this company then, even if he isn’t now?

[frnewsjunkie]

Going on a witch hunt on Trump.. not finding anything... and all the goods on obama and hillary have been laid at their feet and NO INVESTIGATING that bunch of corruption?

If they don’t, it will anger enough to start a fire storm. I am waiting on justice.. fair treatment....
Second thought... get rid of mueller and every one who participated in uranium/russiagate... who can get this done? sessions! will he do it... only if the guilty say it’s okay. Our AG... our laws... our government.. is broken!

[newfreep]

1. This is from NBC News...so take it with a truckload of salt

2. Mueller has a loooong history of being a dirty cop

3. Probably disinformation to move focus away from Hellry & obama

[blackdog]

Sure. Right.

This is to protect Podesta and Clinton. It keeps anyone else, including grand juries out of any parallel investigation.

[Jacquerie]

It is for the purpose of clearing John Podesta and Hillary.

[iontheball]

For sure it will be the end of the line for Mueller if he goes rogue after Democrats. They will turn on him on a dime like they did with Comey.

[Cowboy Bob]

I have a feeling that Podesta is going to end up being the fall guy for the Clintons...

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

[Nipfan]

Mueller is the swamp -

https://fighting15th.com/2017/08/03/robert-mueller-dirty-cop/

Unbelievable read.

[Velvet_Jones]

This is just stupid. The guy is spending millions of dollars to investigate a FARA violation? It’s a paperwork violation at best. 99% of the time they just send a letter and tell people to file the proper forms. What a giant waste of time and money!

[knighthawk]

This means Mueller has a Word document on his laptop saying Podesta did nothing wrong that he will release in a few months.

[unlearner]

This will be as thorough and unbiased as the investigation into Hillary’s crimes. In other words, not very.

Probably, by design, this serves the purpose to close the book. They created this whole Russia narrative to distract from the Democrat crimes involving Russia.

But the worldwide human trafficking, pedophile, elite power-broker blackmail scheme is starting to crack.

[Ann Archy]

Yeah....riiiiiiggghhhtt. FAKE NEWS! Probably to Exonerate a FELLOW DEMOCRAT!!

[9YearLurker]

Clearly a move by Mueller and co. to defend against bias claims, cover the Podesta evidence, and keep a real investigation from being done on Democrat corruption—all at once!

That this whole charade has been permitted is bizarre to me.

[ETL]

"Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU). Podesta's company was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, which promoted Ukraine's image in the West. ..."

The ECMU was reportedly backed by the Party of Regions, the pro-Russian and oligarch-funded Ukrainian political party for which Manafort worked as a consultant, and which paid his firm millions.

Viktor Yanukovych of the Party of Regions, a Manafort client, was president of Ukraine during the ECMU campaign, which ran from 2012 to 2014. He fled the country in 2014."
_____________________________

Viktor Yanukovych's pro-US opponent was Viktor Yushchenko.

From 2014

Yushchenko, hero of Ukraine's Orange Revolution warns Europe that Putin won't stop at Crimea

by Matthew Schofield - McClatchy Foreign Staff
March 27, 2014

Many Ukrainians believe you need look no further than the face of Viktor Yushchenko to understand Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

Once smooth and ruggedly handsome, it still bears the scars from an assassination attempt when someone slipped dioxin into Yushchenko's food. ..."

Read more here:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24765781.html#storylink=cpy
______________________________________________

[thinden]

Sure. Right.

This is to protect Podesta and Clinton. It keeps anyone else, including grand juries out of any parallel investigation.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Looks like mueller is on his way to give the podestas a clean bill of health.

Agree that a lot of evidence will go down the black hole.

Will be interesting to see if mueller charges manafort for failure to register as a foreign agent without charging the podesta group with the sam violation

[JudgemAll]

So now Mueller investigating himself? This was what this was all about, for the statute of limitation, classing the affair away and once again expunging an Obama record

[JudgemAll]

Yep, Mueller is going to shred paper and get witnesses eliminated...

[fella]

He’s on an evidence search and destroy mission. Got to protect his masters at all costs plus cover his own butt.