FBI, DOJ launch Probe into Firm of Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta

a reply to: AboveBoard

I appreciate your attempt to research, but this thread is
not about Trump! There is one that is, so you could post
your information there. Please do not continue to derail!

Fact is CNN reported that Podesta group is under DOJ
FBI investigation sorry if you dont like the news.

Hillary’s Campaign Manager Lobbies for a Bank That Transfers Money to Pro-Russia Terrorists
by S. Noble • August 1, 2016


PODESTA SAT ON THE BOARD OF A COMPANY ENRICHED BY TIES TO PUTIN

According to a report put out by the Government Accountability Institute, John Podesta sat on the Board of a company that was enriched to the tune of $35 Million from a Putin-tied Russian government fund.

Podesta, who is also the President of the looney Soros-funded Center for American Progress, sat on the executive board of a small energy company called Joule Unlimited with senior Russian officials.

According to the report: “Two months after Podesta joined the board, Vladimir Putin’s Rusnano announced that it would invest up to one billion rubles into Joule Unlimited, which amounts to $35 million. That represents one-fifth of the entire amount of investment dollars Joule collected from 2007 to 2013.” www.independentsentinel.com...

a reply to: AboveBoard

It appears you have done most of the dirty work to show this Breitbart propaganda belongs in the crapper. Good job!

a reply to: burntheships

Here is a direct link to the FARA filing btw.

And this is something he is still involved with:

Kathleen Drakulich 2
President
Secretary
Brent Heberlee
Treasurer
Sigmund Rogich 8
Secretary
Susan McCue
Director
Jennifer Taylor
Director
Rose McKinney-James 1
President
Director
John D. Podesta 2
Director
Lydia J. Ball
Director

Corporation Wiki

Clean Energy Project, Inc. (CEP) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to powering the clean energy economy through education and engagement with policy leaders, community leaders and citizens on the economic benefits of fully developing a clean energy economy. CEP builds on existing successful policies and advocates for continued development of the west's promising clean energy industry.

Addresses817 S. Main St, Las Vegas, NV 89101 >
100 W Liberty St, Reno, NV 89501 >
1333 H St Nw, Washington, DC 20005 >
455 Massachusetts Ave Nw, Washington, DC 20001 >
1666 L St, Washington, DC 20006 >
8912 Montego Bay Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89117 >

bizstanding.com

TAX INFO: www.taxpayerservicecenter.com...

455 Massachusetts Avenue NW 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
i.sli.mg...

(From Media Matter's 990)

(1) The American Independent
455 Massachusetts Avenue NW 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

(2) Franklin Education Form
455 Massachusetts Avenue NW 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20001

(3) Bonner Group Inc.
455 Massachusetts Ave.NW, Suite 640
Washington DC, 20001
cos.va-vdacs.com...

(4) American Bridge 21st Century PAC
455 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC, 20001, US
www.idealist.org...

(5) Correct the Record PAC
455 Massachusetts Avenue Suite 650, Washington, DC 20001
www.factdc.org...

(6) Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
455 Massachusetts Avenue NW • Sixth Floor • Washington, DC 20001
www.citizensforethics.org...

(7) DC Private Jet Charter Service
455 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest,
Washington, DC 20001
DC Private Jet Charter Service (potential Shell Company) SIC Codes:
73593900
735939
Affiliated Persons: Donald Knutson

(8) Media Matters
455 Massachusetts Avenue NW NO 6th FL

source

See anything odd there?

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: AboveBoard

You seriously believe John Podesta isn't involved anymore ?

There are actually THREE Podestas currently involved with the Clinton campaign.

a reply to: IAMTAT

There are actually THREE Podestas currently involved with the Clinton campaign.

Right you are:

EXCLUSIVE: Hillary Clinton Campaign Bundler Is Directly Lobbying For Saudi Arabia

dailycaller.com...

Heather Podesta

Zaid Jilani June 3 2016, 2:23 p.m. LEADING DEMOCRATIC SUPER-LOBBYIST and Hillary Clinton bundler Heather Podesta derided President Obama’s lobbying reforms Wednesday, while laughing off concerns about her own sky-high compensation.

theintercept.com...
www.heatherpodesta.com...

originally posted by: burntheships
a reply to: xuenchen

If he is a Board member, he is involved.

There is also this, damning.

Former employee claims they knew about the FARA filing deception,
which is a felony.

“Of course they should have filed,” said one former Podesta Group employee. “There is zero chance they will do it retroactively. I can’t even imagine how awful it would be to file three years of reporting at the same time for a huge firm, many of whose principals have left.” The former employee said there was “no question” that the Podesta Group knew about the Ukraine connections. www.buzzfeed.com...

From your buzzfeed link: (Mercury is a firm in the same exact position as Podesta Group)

After days of revelations about his work in Ukraine, including allegations that he helped foment anti-NATO protests in Crimea and new details about his ties to a man thought to be linked to Russian intelligence, Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign on Friday morning.

Gates, whom the AP specifically names as having given directions to Mercury and Podesta Group, is staying on and taking the position of campaign liaison to the Republican National Committee.

Mercury partner Vin Weber, a former congressman, told Yahoo News earlier this week that Manafort had personally recruited him to lobby for the nonprofit and that he had asked Manafort who was behind the group, but Manafort had not told him.

Podesta Group CEO Kimberly Fritts said in a statement on Thursday that "we were not aware that Rick Gates was a Party of Regions consultant at the time he introduced us to the Centre. We believed he was working for the Centre, as we were hired to do."

Buzzfeed link

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

He is on the Board of Correct the Record too?
That explains more than a few things...

ETA: Media Matters too! Oh my!

Great info, thanks Jaded!

originally posted by: buckwhizzle
Makes me wonder if he will be the fall guy for all this....

Anyone but a Clinton....as we have seen thus far.

They are just flushing everything out now so she is exonerated of it all prior to her presidency.

All part of the plan

a reply to: burntheships

I'm not derailing, I'm challenging your source materials and their inherent, shall we say, bias.

In pointing out the irony regarding the OP sources deflecting from Manafort's direct, and most likely criminal activity in this matter, and their placing "scandal" and blame on John Podesta, (who is not even currently on the list of people involved at Podesta Group, nor has he been since 1993, over two decades ago) I was attempting to show the bias of your sources and how their selective casting of blame is not only obvious, it is purposefully deceptive and misleading.

Who does Britebart work for now?

Anyway, I thought that was allowed? Discussing the topic sources?

If you feel you have a legitimate complaint, please report my posts. I am in no wise trying to derail.

AB

a reply to: burntheships

He is on the Board of Correct the Record too?
That explains more than a few things...

ETA: Media Matters too! Oh my!

I don't think he is on the boards of those companies, but they do all share the same physical address.

On a related note though, someone went through the 990s of the Bonner group and made some mind maps to show how the money flows:

originally posted by: jadedANDcynical
a reply to: burntheships

He is on the Board of Correct the Record too?
That explains more than a few things...

ETA: Media Matters too! Oh my!

I don't think he is on the boards of those companies, but they do all share the same physical address.

Ok, got it.

On a related note though, someone went through the 990s of the Bonner group and made some mind maps to show how the money flows:

Great graphs, it appears to be an intricately
connected group of democratic operatives.



On a related note. I just learned that Media Matters
founder David Brock is the founder of Correct the Record!!

David Brock, the creator of the liberal website Media Matters, is the founder of Correct the Record.
www.factcheck.org...

originally posted by: AboveBoard
a reply to: burntheships

I'm not derailing, I'm challenging your source materials and their inherent, shall we say, bias

That is fine, and I doubt there exists a mainstream news
outlet without extreme bias, but overlook that here?
This seems to be a current event here on ATS.


The facts are that The Podesta Group as reported by CNN
is under a FBI DOJ probe. He founded the Podesta Group,
and is Clinton's campaign chair. These are facts, not disputable.

What is not obvious to some is John Podesta's current influence to
The Podesta Group, The Podesta Group direct ties to other lobbying
firms John is tied to or even directly involved with that fall
under this probe.

As I posted here.

I can understand that you may choose not to see these ties,
or disagree.

a reply to: burntheships

Does he network with his brother when needed? I don't have proof either way but it wouldn't be a crime. Is he extremely "connected" in DC? Well, obviously. Is that a crime?

Isn't criminality what is being implied? Or at least some unusual level of networking and inter-connectedness?

Really, I don't think that kind of relationship-driven success in DC is unusual at all. In fact, it is how things really get done, on all sides, when it comes to legislation and politics. I would challenge you to look at the various lobbying firms and politicians, and how they connect - what think tanks they are involved in, and PACS and other entities. It is an interesting web.

originally posted by: AboveBoard
a reply to: burntheships

Does he network with his brother when needed? I don't have proof either way but it wouldn't be a crime. Is he extremely "connected" in DC? Well, obviously. Is that a crime?

Depends on how they do it...the key word being "influence".

But John Podesta himself is likely part of the probe, as it has been
reported by many news agency's that he is a sitting Board member
of a lobbying firm that has been found to be operating without
proper lobbyist filings to accept money from foreign donors.

And several other lobbyist firms are in this mix,
and he seems to have failed himself to properly
disclose all of these Board positions.

Who was funding Sea Change Foundation? According to tax records, Sea Change Foundation at the time was receiving a large infusion of funds from a mysterious Bermuda-based entity called ‘Klein, Ltd.’…Who owns Klein? It is impossible to say exactly, given corporate secrecy laws in Bermuda. But the registered agent and lawyers who set up the offshore entity are tied to a handful of Russian business entities including Troika Dialog, Ltd. Leadership includes Ruben Vardanyan, an ethnic Armenian who is a mega oligarch in Putin’s Russia. Vardanyan also served on the board of Joule Energy with John Podesta.

It’s not known how much Podesta made because he sat on the board of three Joule entities but only listed two on his disclosure though he was required by law to disclose on all three.

“But the flows of funds from Russia during the ‘reset’ to Podesta-connected entities apparently didn’t end with Joule Energy,” the report states. According to the GAI report, Podesta’s far-left think tank, Center for American Progress (CAP), took in $5.25 million from the Sea Change Foundation between 2010-2013.


www.independentsentinel.com...

Isn't criminality what is being implied? Or at least some unusual level of networking and inter-connectedness?

Well, as I have posted, Podesta is directly involved with lobbying
firms that according to filings are committing felonies.

I would say yes, criminality is implied.

Breitbart!!!!!
Flipping can it. What garbage. A la trump

originally posted by: burntheships

originally posted by: AboveBoard
a reply to: burntheships

Does he network with his brother when needed? I don't have proof either way but it wouldn't be a crime. Is he extremely "connected" in DC? Well, obviously. Is that a crime?

Depends on how they do it...the key word being "influence".

But John Podesta himself is likely part of the probe, as it has been
reported by many news agency's that he is a sitting Board member
of a lobbying firm that has been found to be operating without
proper lobbyist filings to accept money from foreign donors.

And several other lobbyist firms are in this mix,
and he seems to have failed himself to properly
disclose all of these Board positions.

Who was funding Sea Change Foundation? According to tax records, Sea Change Foundation at the time was receiving a large infusion of funds from a mysterious Bermuda-based entity called ‘Klein, Ltd.’…Who owns Klein? It is impossible to say exactly, given corporate secrecy laws in Bermuda. But the registered agent and lawyers who set up the offshore entity are tied to a handful of Russian business entities including Troika Dialog, Ltd. Leadership includes Ruben Vardanyan, an ethnic Armenian who is a mega oligarch in Putin’s Russia. Vardanyan also served on the board of Joule Energy with John Podesta.

It’s not known how much Podesta made because he sat on the board of three Joule entities but only listed two on his disclosure though he was required by law to disclose on all three.

“But the flows of funds from Russia during the ‘reset’ to Podesta-connected entities apparently didn’t end with Joule Energy,” the report states. According to the GAI report, Podesta’s far-left think tank, Center for American Progress (CAP), took in $5.25 million from the Sea Change Foundation between 2010-2013.


www.independentsentinel.com...

Isn't criminality what is being implied? Or at least some unusual level of networking and inter-connectedness?

Well, as I have posted, Podesta is directly involved with lobbying
firms that according to filings are committing felonies.

I would say yes, criminality is implied.

You mean this?
CNN: "Trump: Clinton has Russia ties, too..."

Podesta family ties

The claim: "Clinton's campaign chairman sat on the board of a Skolkovo-based company that received millions from a Putin-connected investment fund."

What we know: Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, was a member of the board of Skolkovo-based energy company Joule Unlimited -- which got an investment of $35 million from Rusnano, an investment firm founded by Putin, just two months after Podesta joined the board.

Podesta's brother, Tony Podesta, a bundler for Clinton's presidential campaign, has lobbied for Russia's Sberbank, which has ties to Putin and his associates, according to the Organized Crime and Reporting Project.

Also worth noting: Sberbank was a sponsor of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Trump met with one of the bank's officials during his trip to Russia for the pageant, the Daily Mail reported.

Was it illegal for Joule Unlimited to get investment dollars from Rusnano? If so, how? I haven't found a source saying that investment was illegal. People are calling it a "tie" to Russia, but they are not calling it "illegal" are they?

And Sberbank (Russian bank Tony's firm lobbied for) was a sponsor of the 2013 Miss Universe pageant! Oh heavens! Stop the presses!!!! (yes, I'm being sarcastic. I don't think this was criminal of Trump in any way.)


I've seen this over and over. Trump accuses people of that which is his own weakness in order to deflect and put them on the defensive. It is a tactic that Britebart is happily deploying on Trump's behalf. It is a classic technique.

If charges come up for ANY of this, I will be surprised. I think it is simply "Oh yeah? I have Russian connections? Well Well Well - look over there! Don't look at the people in MY campaign!!! Look look look! Remember how I said Hillary had a terrible relationship with Putin? Well, yeah, I take it all back!! She's practically holding hands with him!!!! Or at least Podesta is!! See????"


Let's talk again after the investigation and see what they come up with. If there is a crime, so be it. But I will bet you it won't fall on John Podesta, and not because of "rigged systems" but because, at least right now, this all seems to be a lot of amped up rhetoric with little substance and a lot of assumptions. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I will admit it. I just sincerely doubt it.

- AB

a reply to: AboveBoard

I'm sorry your upset about the FBI probe into The Podesta Group.

a reply to: AboveBoard

And in other news, the Clinton foundation is not controlled by Hillary and bill, even though it bears their name and they started it. Chelsea Clinton who knows next to nothing is not a proxy.

Lol.

Cheers - Dave