Washington, D.C. mega-lobbyist, Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, stepped down from his post at the helm of the Podesta Group and suggested in his resignation letter that he could be facing ramifications for failing to disclose lobbying he did on behalf of the pro-Putin Ukrainian government, in concert with Paul Manafort.
But, a quick look back reveals that Tony Podesta has been in trouble for this sort of thing before. Back in 2016, the Podesta Group was called on the carpet by The Washington Free Beacon, who discovered that the Group failed to file legally-required disclosures notifying the Federal government that it had been lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
In that case, the foreign government was India. But perhaps more importantly, among the emails the Free Beacon found were communications between Tony Podesta and his brother, John, demonstrating that Tony had lobbied John on several occasions, asking John to use his position as counselor to President Barack Obama to help push policy items favorable to Tony’s clients.
On August 4, 2014, the Podesta brothers met with the Indian ambassador to the United States in the White House, visitor logs show. At the time, John was a senior counselor to the president. His “portfolio” of work there included issues pertaining to India.
A few months later, on Jan. 1, 2015, Tony emailed John inviting him to an event featuring the Indian ambassador, according to emails posted by WikiLeaks after hackers believed to be acting on behalf of the Russian government breached John’s account.
The reports are significant today because Tony Podesta was involved in doing work for Paul Manafort, who stands accused by the FBI of subverting American interests by advocating — and even, perhaps, connecting — American officials to pro-Putin Russians. The Podesta Group definitely worked with Manafort, and if Tony Podesta was involved, it might mean collaboration of a larger scale than just with the Trump campaign.
This is all speculation, of course. Manafort and Grant have both pled not guilty to charges they conspired against the United States, and it’s not clear what Tony Podesta was referring to as “forthcoming” in his resignation letter.