Tucker Carlson DESTROYS Podesta Group For THIS
good evening and welcome to tucker carlson tonight we have exclusive new
reporting on a story that has turned Washington upside down and cause more
intrigue than anything in the city I've seen in 25 years is of course you've
heard independent council Robert Miller's investigation has zeroed in on
its first targets today former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and
his business associate Rick gates were both indicted on charges of money
laundering tax fraud in failure to report lobbying arrangements now the
indictment among other things offers tantalizing details about how foreign
lobbying actually works at the highest levels in Washington how Manafort
allegedly used wandered offshore cash to buy Range Rovers expand his wardrobe
somehow spend six hundred and fifty five thousand dollars on landscaping for his
house in the Hamptons mana firts indictment comes as honestly no surprise
to anyone who's been in Washington for awhile and has watched him operate
though of course the legal system will make the final call in that it's pretty
clear though that Paul Manafort is just the first in a series of people in DC
who are suddenly in deep deep trouble who's next
reading between the lines of the indictment and talking to a number of
our own sources we think we've got a pretty good idea of that keep in mind
that today's indictment never mentions Donald Trump's presidential campaign or
the 2016 election it only mentions Russia in passing
even though Russian meddling was the pretext for this investigation in the
first place instead the indictment catalogues mana for its efforts to lobby
on behalf of pro-russian groups in Ukraine the indictment goes into great
detail on the relationship between Manafort and two mysterious groups
described in the document as company a and Company B those companies we can
report tonight our mercury LLC that's led by former Republican congressman VIN
Weber and the Podesta group founded by Tony Podesta and his brother John whom
you'll remember as Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman none of this will come
as a shock to viewers of this show last Tuesday we told you that the Muller
investigation is no primarily a search for Russian collusion
in the 2016 race it is now a much far-reaching inquiry into corrupt
lobbying practices across DC one that is very likely to ensnare figures close to
Hillary Clinton the press accounts Muller's investigation is still framed
as a hunt for collusion between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the
government of Russia our source says investigators are in
fact very interested in manna for its behavior while he ran the Trump campaign
but otherwise that description is mostly bogus the investigation has broadened
now to determine which people and which organizations in Washington have spent
years working secretly as de facto operatives on behalf of Russian
government and business interests the Podesta group is chief among these quote
they are more focused on facilitators of Russian influence in this country says
our source than they are on election collusion the Podesta group he says
quote is in their crosshairs well that segment was trained last week
provoked a snarling legal threat from Tony pizzette
Podesta today designed to shut us up that's not going to happen obviously but
we'll tell you a lot more about it in just a minute
last week we explained how Manafort Paul Manafort used a sham group called the
European Center for a modern Ukraine to lobby on behalf of pro-russian forces in
Ukraine those forces sawed a number of changes to American policy changes to
the Republican platform for example some of the changes are obviously contrary to
America's interests and values among them they wanted the US government to
support the imprisonment of one of you the you Kane president's political
opponents shady does not begin to describe this operation even some of
Tony Podesta zone employees thought the whole thing was disgusting well today's
indictment confirms our reporting on this it describes the Center for modern
Ukraine as a fake organization merely quote a mouthpiece for the Ukrainian
president Yanukovych the indictment also confirms that the lobbying groups
Manafort hired in Washington including Tony Podesta's knew perfectly well that
the Center for the modern Ukraine was fake when they signed on to represent it
according to the feds Podesta's company was told explicitly they would be
lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian president
in November 2012 the indictment says Manafort business partner explicitly
requested reports on lobbying activity by both those companies so that he could
brief the president of Ukraine Yanukovych on what they were doing it
couldn't get dirtier but despite apparently knowing they were acting as
foreign agents agents of a foreign government
the Podesta group never registered as foreign agents failure to do that is
against the law in April 2012 the Podesta group filed documents with
Congress relating to its work with the center for a modern Ukraine at the time
they falsely claimed that group was just a foreign NGO the Podesta groups filing
contained a declaration by the center for money Ukraine that quote none of the
activities of the center are directly or indirectly supervised directed
controlled financed or subsidized in whole or in part by a government of a
foreign country or a foreign political party that declaration false was
endorsed as true by Kimberly Fritz now the CEO of the Podesta group and a
former Jeb Bush staffer all apparently a lie moreover according to today's
indictment the Podesta group must have known it was a lie when they signed that
document under the law the firm should have immediately registered with the
government the US government under the foreign agents Registration Act instead
the Podesta group waited until spring 2017 this year to do that and then
somehow applied the status retroactively Lee but that point the Center for modern
Ukraine had effectively been out of business for three years it was a little
late interestingly the Podesta group filed those late papers just weeks after
media outlets began reporting that law enforcement was investigating Manafort
offshore bank accounts connection but wait why would you Craney an interest
hire Tony Podesta in the first place well according to a former Podesta
employee we spoke to over this weekend even foreign officials in distant lands
understood that Tony Podesta's brother was John Podesta a clicky Clinton
confidant he was widely known the two brothers had dinner together every
Sunday night quote that's not something we hid from clients of the firm they
loved hearing that even a native Russian speaker could grasp the point of all of
this the Podesta group was hired by Paul
Manafort on behalf of foreign clients because the company was perceived to
have a direct line to powerful politicians John Podesta was Hillary's
campaign chairman Tony Podesta had been friends with Bill Clinton since the
midterm elections of 1970 influence-peddling
101 how central were the Podesta's political connections to their profit
model consider this the firm's billing dropped dramatically
almost immediately after Hillary Clinton lost the race for president that tells
you a lot Mahler's investigators apparently figured this out today Tony
possessed the Podesta resigned as head of his company his excuse us that's
right he blamed us in his parting statement Podesta said this quote it is
impossible to run a public affairs firm while you're under attack by Fox News
and the right-wing media while Podesta isn't just complaining about us though
he's threatening us this afternoon we got a letter from Jeff guarantor he's a
lawyer with Venable LLP a big law firm here in DC the letter demands that this
show quote immediately cease and desist disseminating false and misleading
reports about mr. Podesta in the Podesta group it demands we retract and delete
all our prior reporting in the Podesta group and warns that if we don't do this
quote mr. Podesta may pursue legal action including for damages in order to
fully protect his rights the letter doesn't stop there though it also warns
us that we will face legal action under the Copyright Act merely for quoting
from this letter publicly as we just did the most amusing line though is this one
quote Paul Manafort did not work with the Podesta group in its representation
of the European Center for a modern Ukraine that's what the lawyers letters
told us apparently that lawyer hasn't read the Manafort indictment yet in
paragraph 22 of that indictment we read this quote at the direction of Manafort
and gates companies a and B engaged in extensive lobbying on Ukraine the
indictment also says that the Podesta group and Mercury were selected
personally by Paul Manafort to lobby on behalf of Ukrainian interests so if John
Podesta is legal team has a complaint it's not with us is with the Department
of just in the Moller investigation but maybe
we're being too literal about this probably so Podesta's lawyer wasn't
trying to inform us of anything but to threaten us to shut down our reporting
on his client one lawyer we talked to earlier today said the Podesta people
have used this tactic with others before it's common it's never to use fear to
control press coverage we're not intimidated we have ample
evidence from molars indictment from a number of confidential sources to paint
a pretty clear picture of exactly what the Podesta group was doing for years
here in Washington let the facts speak for themselves and we're confident the
Moller investigation will be revealing a lot more about Tony Podesta's lobbying
practices in the near future in the meantime if you're looking for a summary
of all of this here's the one sentence cliff note - the whole affair the
chairman of one major presidential campaign colluded with the brother of
the chairman of the other major presidential campaign to enrich
themselves by secretly advancing the interests of a foreign adversary that
happened that's the swamp they told you needed to be drained Jonathan Turley
teaches law right in the middle of the swamp he's a professor at George
Washington University Law School and he joins us tonight this Charlie thanks
coming up thank you so you don't often hear of people prosecuted for violating
the Farra Act so the requirement legal requirements register as a foreign
lobbyist when you lobby for a foreign government lot people here do it very
few relatively few register why is that unenforced well it's only been a handful
of prosecutions and they have it in this mix is odd it's like I'm being chased by
a bunch of Rottweilers in a chihuahua you know it's not exactly a fierce
charge to face but it was broad in this case and I think it sends a signal to
others like Flynn like Tony Podesta that these are charges that that could be
brought I think this indictment is is saying that the special counsel is
prepared to indict anyone for anything within his mandate but he's clearly
focusing on these types of financial transactions and registration violations
now ferret violations are a bit deadly in one sense and that is some of these
violations are registration violations jurors tend to treat those as basically
cut and dry if if they're convinced that you had to file then you're guilty so
you can to cure these types of convictions but
they're in a mix with very serious crimes but they seem see I mean look
this whole investigation appears to be focused on the question of foreign
influence how do foreign governments affect American policy yeah the
decisions our government makes and there is of loss seems to be a meaningful one
saying if you're doing the bidding of a foreign power you have to tell us about
it why is that considered a small violation well it's small because it's
often been dealt with administrative leave when you violate it the response
like the Podesta group did was to retroactively Lee file and my Department
of Justice has allowed that clearly Mahler is not following that pattern he
is taking the view that you know if you violated fara we can charge you
criminally we will it be hard not to see that charge brought against people like
Flynn you could white out Manta for its name and put in Flynn and basically use
like he did fear tawan government that's right yeah and so this is a signal to
others that these charges are likely to be broad
so if fara violations are basically looked past and you can retroactively
lis file four or five years and call it good this is an editorial comment but
it's interested in your view maybe that's one of the reasons DC so corrupt
and storing that out there well you know when this first happened I was when we
went into the Russian money my first response was Washington's awash with
Russian money yes and the public are about to see that this this city has a
real sordid side too not just Russian money absolutely and people do influence
peddle and there's that it's not exclusive to any particular party and so
I think what the Democrats are experienced with the Republicans is that
investigations are a lot like Saturn they devour their own and you're gonna
see an expansion here clearly bringing in other people and if the focus does
appear by Muller to be out on the lobbying aspect and you're right this
could actually happy a historic you know this series of disclosures for the
public I think the public if there's no idea the level of influence a delayed
dollar shootin and I don't care who swept up in it if you're working on
behalf of a foreign power against American interests I hope you're exposed
I really do I think they will be good thank you that's really great to see you
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