With all the focus on President Donald Trump, one could be forgiven for forgetting about former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Podesta was the target of a hack which culminated in the fall of 2016, when his emails were released to the public through WikiLeaks. The emails contained numerous revelations, including the fact that interim DNC Chair Donna Brazile had provided questions to the Clinton campaign ahead of primary debates.
Now, the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) is reporting that Podesta may be under the influence of Russia:
The last time Podesta talked negatively about Russia was Dec. 18, 2016, when he charged in an NBC “Meet the Press” interview the 2016 election was “distorted by the Russian intervention.”
According to retired Air Force Col. James Waurishuk, it all goes back to Podesta’s time at a company called Joule Global Holdings, of which he was a member of the board:
“If the effort is going to be, ‘get the Democratic Party to stop making Russia out to be the evil villains that they are,’ the influence part could be continuing with Podesta, which is to influence him to get them to stop.”
DCNF also spoke with former FBI assistant director, Ron Hosko:
“As a board member, here he [Podesta] sits on the same board and they become friends. And they maintain that friendship, but it’s an influence campaign. Was it an influence campaign? Well Podesta was going to rise with Hillary…And so, what a perfect opportunity.”
And let’s not forget brother Tony Podesta, who “lobbied for the sale of Uranium One to Rusatom, Russia’s atomic agency, a transaction which occurred between 2009 and 2013. The sale gave Moscow control of one-fifth of America’s domestic uranium production capacity.”
What does any of this mean? With speculation surrounding President Trump’s staff and cabinet picks, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for their direct or alleged ties to Russia, there are some who are being ignored.
John Podesta was a high-ranking member of the Clinton campaign–the man at the helm. Since December, he’s been mum on issues pertaining to Russia. With every Democrat this side of the Mississippi–including Clinton’s former campaign staff–continuing to rail on the former Soviet Union, why would Podesta suddenly go dark?
Who else may have been compromised? Is this an issue not simply relegated to the Trump administration, but one that reaches out much further than we imagined? Such questions deserve thorough examination. At the very least, this deserves to be looked at with a level of non-partisan scrutiny similar to that of the Trump campaign’s possible links to Russia.