Uh-Huh: Tony Podesta resigns from his lobbying firm amid Robert Mueller investigation

by Sierra Marlee | October 30, 2017 6:23 pm

Tony Podesta, brother of former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, has been forced to resign his position at a lobbying company as he falls under the scrutiny of Special Investigator Robert Mueller. He issued his statement on Monday to both his firm and his clients, informing all involved that he would be stepping down as a result of the investigation.

According to Politico, who first reported on the resignation, it’s not clear when it will become effective.

[1]

Tony is the founder of the Podesta Group, which released a statement in which they said they are “cooperating fully with the Special Counsel’s office and have taken every possible step to provide documentation that confirms timely compliance. In all of our client engagements, the Podesta Group conducts due diligence and consults with appropriate legal experts to ensure compliance with disclosure regulations at all times — and we did so in this case.”

The trouble began when Mueller indicated that Paul Manafort, a former Trump employee, was going to have his finances looked into as a matter of discovering if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort and Podesta’s firms worked together doing public relations work for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU) nonprofit which is believed to be backed by the pro-Russian group, Party of Regions. It is for this reason that both firms are going to be investigated, attempting to ensure that no funny business was going on between pro-Russian entities and people who were working with then-Presidential candidate Trump.

The Podesta Group specifically came under fire for suspicions that it may have violated FARA, or the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It says that American citizens who lobby for foreign entities including governments, political parties and leaders need to be in contact with the Justice Department and register their activities.

Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates are the only two people who are facing charges at the moment, but in their case it looks really bad. According to a Washington Examiner article on the subject, the pair are facing 12 charges, including making “false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, serving as an unregistered foreign principal, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.”

Oh boy, this isn’t looking good. On the upside, Trump did manage to push Manafort out, which looks really good for the President. On the downside, it looks really suspicious that a President who has been accused of working with Russia to influence the election would have also hired at least two guys who have had suspicious dealings with the country.

We’ll have to wait and see how this all turns out.

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1060x600-2eed41c7729e310c957aa109c1de9199.jpg

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/democrats/uh-huh-tony-podesta-resigns-lobbying-firm-amid-robert-mueller-investigation/