The Podesta Group, a Democratic lobbying firm led by Tony Podesta — the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta — will likely shut its doors this week, after ending up at the center of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
In a staff meeting Thursday, Podesta Group chief executive Kimberley Fritts, reportedly told employees to clean out their desks and pack their personal belongings. She added, according to CNN, that the company wasn’t likely to survive the year, and that employees could not expect to be paid past November 15.
Fritts also announced that she was leaving Podesta Group effective Friday, and that she was taking some of the firm’s biggest name clients with her. She told the firm’s staff that most, if not all, will likely join her at her new lobbying firm. Other Podesta Group bigwigs, including Tony Podesta himself, are exploring other options.
Tony Podesta resigned his position at his namesake firm on October 30, just a day after learning that he was named in Mueller’s investigation. Several years ago, Podesta worked with former Trump 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, lobbying Congress and others in D.C. on behalf of a pro-Putin Ukrainian leader. Podesta reportedly failed to properly disclose the foreign entanglement, earning Mueller’s suspicion.
Mueller’s team subpoenaed communications and records from the Podesta Group back in August, and Podesta and others have reportedly been in Mueller’s crosshairs since the beginning of the summer. The investigation that Democrats had hoped would pull down the president and some of his top advisors, ended up ensnaring one of their own top operatives.