Tony Podesta stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe

[Shard Shinjuku]

https://www.politico.com/story/2017...from-lobbying-giant-amid-mueller-probe-244314

Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the lobbying shop that bears his name after coming under investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.

Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.


Podesta is handing over full operational and financial control to longtime firm CEO Kimberley Fritts, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting. Fritts and a senior group of the Podesta team will be launching a new firm in the next one or two days. Sources said the transition has been in the works for the past several months.

"[Tony] was very magnanimous and said, "This is an amazing group of people," a source said of Podesta's remarks. Podesta also told staff he "doesn't intend to go quietly, or learn how to play golf." He said he "needs to fight this as an individual, but doesn't want the firm to fight it."

Fritts also addressed the gathering, telling staff that she is "thrilled at this opportunity" and that, "This is not about me, this is about y'all." Several other senior staff spoke about their excitement about the future of the firm. The meeting ended with a standing ovation for Podesta.

Podesta Group did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

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[Kirblar]

To be clear, this is not directly related to the Russia/Trump stuff. It appears he was working for Ukraine's lobbying team (much like Russia and others were using Manafort) and got caught doing the same thing they were w not registering as a foreign agent.

This is of course bad, but there's no connection to any sort of vast election conspiracy to warp the outcome of the US race. But that likely won't stop Fox and co from trying to draw a false equivalence.

 

[Akileese]

To be clear, this is not directly related to the Russia/Trump stuff. It appears he was working for Ukraine's lobbying team (much like Russia and others were using Manafort) and got caught doing the same thing they were w not registering as a foreign agent.

This is of course bad, but there's no connection to any sort of vast election conspiracy to warp the outcome of the US race. But that likely won't stop Fox and co from trying to draw a false equivalence.

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It does go to show that the Ukraine's lobbying team reached out to both Rs and Ds in an effort to get what they wanted though. It's still a pretty big deal. I think we all knew Podesta was dirty, but did anyone have a pulse on this before today?

 

[Kirblar]

It does go to show that the Ukraine's lobbying team reached out to both Rs and Ds in an effort to get what they wanted though. It's still a pretty big deal. I think we all knew Podesta was dirty, but did anyone have a pulse on this before today?

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The implication is that this shit with working on behalf of foreign lobbyists under the table is really really common. Manafort was doing it for decades!

It's just that the context of doing it for a small country just pushing its own things v what Russia was doing in the US is important to keep in mind. There's the standard issue shit and Russia's shit, which is a billion times worse than the standard shit.

 

[ahoyhoy]

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