News and Commentary

Report: Hillary’s 2016 Campaign Chairman Has Ties To Putin-Linked Firm

   DailyWire.com

A report suggests that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman has ties to a firm that is connected to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

According to The Daily Caller, John Podesta has worked for the renewable energy companies Joule Unlimited, Joule Global Holdings and Joule Global Stichting as a member on their boards or their executive committees. Joule Unlimited received a $35 million investment from Rusnano, a company founded by Putin and owned by the Russian government, shortly after Podesta began working there in 2011. Rusnano’s CEO, Anatoly Chubais, began serving on one of Joule’s boards in 2012.

Rusnano spearheaded Russia’s investments into United States tech companies, but their motives were nefarious. According to the FBI, Russian investment through firms like Rusnano was done “to gain access to classified, sensitive and emerging technology from the companies.”

The people at Joule were allegedly used as part of “a scheme hatched to move billions of weak rubles into valuable U.S. dollars by parking them as ‘investments’ in high-tech companies in Boston and in Silicon Valley,” according to a lawsuit

Podesta himself failed to disclose his Joule stock agreements when he started working for as a senior counselor to President Barack Obama in 2014. He also provided aid to Rusnano in 2015 even after he had left Joule.

The ties between Podesta and Rusnano was enough for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) to call for an investigation into the extent of Podesta’s Russia ties

“This certainly needs to be reviewed to see if there really is something nefarious going on with these activities,” Gohmert told The Daily Caller.

Podesta also may have ties to Russia through his brother, as the Daily Wire has previously explained:

The Podesta Group has allegedly “lobbied for the Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a pro-Russian organization that once employed former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort,” according to The Daily Caller. Podesta allegedly hasn’t been involved with the Podesta Group’s lobbying work “for years,” but the organization is run by Tony Podesta, Podesta’s brother. Tony Podesta has also received $140,000 in monthly pay from Saudi Arabia’s government and is a top Clinton donor. The Podesta brothers are very close.

All of the establishment media attention is on whether President Donald Trump has any ties to the Russians; if he does, the FBI investigation should hopefully clear that up. However, The Daily Caller‘s report indicates that it might be worth looking into Podesta’s reported ties as well.

Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.

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