The “Podesta Group,” a huge lobbying outfit in Washington D.C., says they’re considering changing their name, after the group and their founder, Tony Podesta, were referenced in Monday’s indictments.
Podesta, a prominent lobbyist — and brother of Clinton presidential campaign chairman, John Podesta — wasn’t mentioned by name in documents charging former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort with failing to report millions in assets from foreign governments, but the Podesta Group was one of the lobbying firms that helped Manafort lobby Congress on behalf of a pro-Putin Ukranian leader.
As a result, The New York Times reports, the Group has been hemorrhaging clients — an exodus that began in August, when Mueller issued subpoenas to Podesta’s firm, and only intensified yesterday as Tony Podesta resigned his position as the group’s chief lobbyist.
So now, like the Weinstein Company, in the wake of dozens of sexual harassment allegations against chief Harvey, the Podesta Group is promising its clients that it will change its name, so long as they maintain their accounts with the firm.
Senior officials with the group also told clients, reportedly, that the group is considering a complete marketing overhaul, changing branding, signage, and commercial materials to distance themselves from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The similarities to Weinstein, strangely enough, don’t end there. As news broke Monday of Podesta’s involvement in Manafort’s lobbying operation, the D.C. mega-lobbyist exploded in a staff meeting, the NYT reports, blaming “Fox News” and “conservative media” for making it “impossible to run a public affairs shop.”
It’s all Republicans fault, of course.