Tony Podesta Threatens Tucker Carlson After Bombshell Report On Russian Influence Peddling

Submitted by iBankCoin

Tony Podesta sent a Cease and Decist letter to “Tucker Carlson Tonight” hours after resigning from his role at the Podesta Group – a D.C. lobbying firm accused by a former executive of pedaling Russian influence along with fellow lobbyist and short-lived Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Tony Podesta threatened "Tucker Carlson Tonight" after resigning. Wanted our reporting shutdown. #Tucker @FoxNews

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 31, 2017

Watch:

The Cease and Desist letter sent by Podesta:

Tony Podesta"s Cease and Desist letter to Tucker Carlson: pic.twitter.com/rb72QQ3lRN

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) October 31, 2017

Manfort was indicted over the weekend on 12 counts ranging from tax fraud, money laundering and giving false statements between 2006 and 2015, and is currently under house arrest after turning himself over to the FBI Monday morning – fueling speculation as to whether Tony Podesta’s sudden departure from his firm is connected.

Of note, Monday"s indictment lists "Company A" and "Company B" as firms involved in the investigation - which NBC reports are the Podesta Group and DC public relations firm Mercury Public Affairs.

Last week Carlson reported that Tony Podesta is a central figure in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Directly after his report, Carlson’s show was contacted by a former long-time executive of the Podesta Group with “direct personal knowledge” of Tony Podesta’s questionable activities, which Carlson divulged the next evening.

While the nature of Podesta’s threat has not been made public, Carlson later tweeted “We’re confident the Mueller probe will reveal a lot more about Tony Podesta’s lobbying practices in the near future.”

To review:

After meeting with the former Podesta Group executive who has been “extensively” interviewed by Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel, Tucker Carlson Tonight relayed several highly troubling aspects of the Tony Podesta’s relationship with business associate and fellow lobbyist, Paul Manafort.

According to the former Podesta Group executive, Manafort and Tony Podesta were running a Russian influence-peddling racket up and down Washington D.C., bringing a “parade” of Russian oligarchs to congress for meetings. Podesta was also “Basically part of the Clinton Foundation,” meeting regularly to discuss the now-infamous Uranium One deal.

Highlights, as previously reported (video below):

• Lobbyist and temporary Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is at the center of the Russia probe – however the scope of the investigation has broadened to include his activities prior to the 2016 election.


• Manafort worked with the Podesta Group since at least 2011 on behalf of Russian interests, and was at the Podesta Group offices “all the time, at least once a month,” peddling Russian influence through a shell group called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU).


• Manafort brought a “parade” of Russian oligarchs to congress for meetings with members and their staffs, however, the Russia’s “central effort” was the Obama Administration.


• In 2013, John Podesta recommended that Tony hire David Adams, Hillary Clinton’s chief adviser at the State Department, giving them a “direct liaison” between the group’s Russian clients and Hillary Clinton’s State Department.


• In late 2013 or early 2014, Tony Podesta and a representative for the Clinton Foundation met to discuss how to help Uranium One – the Russian owned company that controls 20 percent of American Uranium Production – and whose board members gave over $100 million to the Clinton Foundation.


• “Tony Podesta was basically part of the Clinton Foundation.”


• Believing she would win the 2016 election, Russia considered the Podesta Group’s connection to Hillary highly valuable.


• Podesta Group is a nebulous organization with no board oversight and all financial decisions made by Tony Podesta. Carlson’s source said payments and kickbacks could be hard for investigators to trace, describing it as a “highly secret treasure trove.” One employee’s only official job was to manage Tony Podesta’s art collection, which could be used to conceal financial transactions.

Full monologue below: 

Former Podesta Group Exec: Paul Manafort was in PG offices "all the time" representing Russian political and business interests. #RussiaGate pic.twitter.com/6dFB1MJRdP

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) October 25, 2017

"Tony Podesta was basically part of the Clinton Foundation," Podesta Group may be concealing financial transactions through art collection. pic.twitter.com/yyyo57THMJ

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) October 25, 2017

Follow on Twitter @ZeroPointNow

Judge Napolitano Says Manafort Is ‘First Of Many Dominoes To Fall’

By Nick Givas – 10/30/2017

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said Monday that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is the “first of many dominoes to fall” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

“This is the first of many dominoes to fall. Bob Mueller is following the standard M.O. of federal prosecutors,” Napolitano said on “Fox and Friends.” “You’re going to indict people going up the totem poll to see if you can squeeze them. Threaten their ruination by loss of liberty and loss of property to get them to turn evidence against the top guy.”

Read more at: The DC Caller

 

The post Judge Napolitano Says Manafort Is ‘First Of Many Dominoes To Fall’ appeared first on Oath Keepers.

Manhattan US Attorneys Join Federal & State Probes Into Possible Manafort Money-Laundering

In what some might call a desperate last minute distraction from WaPo"s real news about Clinton"s lies, WSJ reports that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is pursuing an investigation into possible money laundering by Paul Manafort (the same as the state"s probe). In case you are confused, yes, WSJ admits this is in collaboration with the same federal money-laundering probe by special counsel Robert Mueller which has so far produced nothing.

While The Wall Street Journal manages to repeat the salacious headlines in its first two brief paragraphs, the rest of the story is padding, history, and filler about Mr. Kushner"s various investigations (of which there is no new news).

The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is pursuing an investigation into possible money laundering by Paul Manafort, said three people familiar with the matter, adding to the federal and state probes concerning the former Trump campaign chairman.

 

The investigation by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York is being conducted in collaboration with a probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Mr. Manafort and possible money laundering, according to two of these people.

 

A spokesman for Mr. Manafort declined to comment. Mr. Manafort has previously said he did nothing wrong.

So in an effort to clarify...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office is undertaking the state’s own money-laundering probe concerning Mr. Manafort.

 

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is communicating with Schneiderman and investigating possible federal money-laundering by Mr. Manafort (acording to two sources).

 

Mr. Manafort has previously said he did nothing wrong.

 

And now, according to three people familiar with the matter, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office is pursuing an investigation into possible money laundering by Mr. Manafort.

All we can say is - that"s a lot of probes and a lot of lawyers and will be a lot of embarassment if they are unable to get anything to stick to Mr.Manafort.

Former Trump Insiders Predict Paul Manafort Close To Being Indicted For Financial Crimes, Report

It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that Special Counsel Mueller is intent upon either flipping Paul Manafort against Trump in his "Russian collusion" investigation or filing charges against him for crimes unrelated to the 2016 presidential campaign.  Either way, Manafort"s future looks to be dimming.

As the Daily Caller has just revealed in an exclusive report, former Trump campaign aides are now saying that Manafort could be indicted for financial crimes, allegedly including money laundering and/or tax evasion, in the very near future.

Former Trump campaign aides are telling The Daily Caller that they increasingly believe former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will be indicted for crimes such as money laundering or tax evasion.

One of the former campaign advisers has knowledge of the ongoing investigations into Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who joined the Trump campaign last March. Another former aide said his own knowledge of Manafort’s past history working with despots, coupled with news reports about Mueller’s investigation, led him to believe that an indictment of Manafort is becoming more likely.

The former Trump advisers told TheDC they have no knowledge of any collusion with the Russian government on the presidential campaign. One aide stressed that any financial crimes by Manafort are his own problem and not that of the White House.

“Ill-informed speculation has become the new Washington parlor game. Despite breathless headlines, it is increasingly clear the Russia Collusion story is eroding,” Manafort’s spokesman Jason Maloni told TheDC. Maloni declined to comment when asked specifically about financial crimes.

One of the former aides was interviewed by a Congressional committee investigating Russian interference and told TheDC that many of the questions were about Manafort’s finances.

“Investigators appeared focused on finances and business relationships of the Trump family and top associates such as Paul Manafort and General Michael Flynn,” the former Trump campaign adviser told TheDC.

Of course, back in July WaPo reported that FBI agents "raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials."  Federal agents reportedly appeared at Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours on Wednesday, July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The WaPo reported that the served search warrant was "wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records."

The raid came as Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena.

It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.

Then again, other rumors would suggest that Manafort could luck out on a technicality as Law Newz reported earlier today that FBI agents may have overstepped their bounds during their raid and collected evidence from Manafort"s home that was subject to attorney-client privilege.  If true, such a blatant abuse of power could result in all evidence from Manafort"s home being dismissed by the courts.

As the Robert Mueller investigation intensifies, new details are being leaked about the direction the probe is going. Buried in a story about the intensifying relationship between Mueller and Congress, CNN revealed some very interesting information. According to the report, Mueller’s team may have obtained evidence in the raid of Paul Manafort’s home that was not covered by the search warrant.

As the article points out, this certainly brings up concerns as to what exactly was seized, what investigators saw, and who handled the material. You can’t “unsee” evidence once you saw it.

“If they (investigators) had any kind of heads up, and they went beyond the scope of the warrant, that could be a problem,” Henry Hockeimer, a former federal prosecutor, told LawNewz.com.

Meanwhile, just one day after we found out about the FBI"s raid, we learned that Special Counsel Mueller had also been going after Manafort"s family in order gather dirt.  According to Politico"s anonymous sources, Manafort"s son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai, was approached earlier this summer regarding his "business deals" with Manafort.

Federal investigators sought cooperation from Paul Manafort’s son-in-law in an effort to increase pressure on President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, according to three people familiar with the probe.

Investigators approached Jeffrey Yohai, who has partnered in business deals with Manafort, earlier this summer, setting off “real waves” in Manafort’s orbit, one of these people said. Another of these people said investigators are trying to get “into Manafort’s head.”

Manafort, who is a focus of the broad federal and congressional investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, is also under investigation for his business and real estate transactions, including some that involve Yohai.

As Politico noted at the time, Mueller’s targeting of both Manafort and his son-in-law over potential criminal wrongdoing is a common tactic employed in white-collar cases, commonly called “climbing the ladder.”  The strategy, more or less, entails digging up whatever dirt can be found on those in Trump"s orbit and then using that dirt to coerce potential witnesses into cooperation.

“Manafort is — on many levels — a key subject of the investigation and someone who might be leveraged to share information about others,” said one Washington-based white-collar attorney with a client involved in the Russia probe.

The approach involves finding a suspected crime — false statements on tax returns or loan applications, for example — and then offering leniency on prosecution in exchange for cooperation. “They always start with the people on the low end of the ladder and try to get information on someone high up on the ladder,” said William Jeffress, a white-collar attorney who represented Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, in the President George W. Bush-era Valerie Plame leak investigation.

Mueller would clearly have jurisdiction over any real estate dealings between Yohai, Manafort and Russians, Jeffress said. In addition, he could press Yohai for details on what he knows about Manafort’s role in the campaign.

In summary, when your "Russian collusion" narrative fails miserably...keep digging until you find something on someone...Paul Manafort appears to be that "someone."

Deep state operative Robert Mueller now using “elite” IRS unit in scheme to take out Trump

(INTELLIHUB) — Another day, another series of revelations relating to deep state operative Robert Mueller’s sham investigation into supposed Russian hacking of the 2016 election, this time with news that he is teaming up with the conservative targeting IRS to further dig for something he can then use to turn a member of Trump’s inner circle.

According to the Daily Beast, the special counsel’s office has “teamed up” with the IRS’s elite Criminal Investigation Unit which will help to ensure that investigators (see deep state operatives specifically looking to take out the elected president) apply the “maximum possible scrutiny” to the finances of Trump associates, despite the fact that Mueller’s entire investigation is supposed to be about Russian election hacking.

As Zerohedge noted, “Of course, the public has long been aware, thanks to Mueller’s collaborators in the media, that his team has no solid evidence to support a charge of election fraud against Trump or members of his circle.”

“And while this latest “partnership” just confirms widely held suspicions that Mueller & Co. are grasping at straws, it could provide Mueller an opening to strike directly at the president, his family and closest advisers – or at least embarass Trump with a fresh batch of leaks.”

The Daily Beast report, which was of course given to the news outlet by people close to Mueller himself, points out that in partnering with the IRS, Mueller’s team will then be able to access Trump’s tax returns.

“This unit—known as CI—is one of the federal government’s most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller’s said he always liked working with IRS’ special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney.

And it goes without saying that the IRS has access to Trump’s tax returns—documents that the president has long resisted releasing to the public

Potential financial crimes are a central part of Mueller’s probe. One of his top deputies, Andy Weissmann, formerly helmed the Justice Department’s Enron probe and has extensive experience working with investigative agents from the IRS.”

Considering the long history of anti-Trump leaks to establishment media outlets, one can safety assume that the tax returns would then be leaked and plastered across the pages of The New York Times or Washington Post.

“In its report, the Daily Beast shares some fresh insight into the prosecution’s case against Manafort. Naturally, we have a few questions: Can somebody explain what role Paul Manafort’s forgetting to check a box on his tax returned played in the grand conspiracy to rig the 2016 election,” Zerohedge continued.

“It’s been widely reported that the special counsel’s team is trying to “flip” Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign CEO, in hopes he will provide evidence against his former colleagues. Former federal prosecutors tell The Daily Beast one of Manafort’s biggest legal liabilities could be to what’s called a “check the box” prosecution.

Federal law requires that people who have money in foreign bank accounts check a box on their tax returns disclosing that. And there’s speculation that Manafort may have neglected to check that box, which would be a felony. This is exactly the kind of allegation the IRS would look into.”

As Intellihub News has reported for weeks, Mueller is specifically targeting Manafort for crimes he may or may not have committed literally years before he ever worked with Trump.

In early August I reported that, “FBI agents working for deep state operative Robert Mueller raided the home of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort late last month, seizing materials they claim are related to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.”

“Despite claims throughout the mainstream media that the raid is connected to the Russian-“Trump investigation, their own reports conclusively show that the targeting of Manafort has absolutely nothing to do with anything Trump may or may not have done wrong but is in reality about fishing through Manafort’s past until they find wrongdoing which would then allow Mueller and his team to flip him and eventually force him to lie about Trump and or his associates.”

All in all this is just more proof that the entire Mueller investigation is a full on sham designed to take out Donald Trump by any means necessary. The idea that this has anything to do with Russia was long ago thrown out the window.

Now, the deep state assets on Mueller’s team (as well as Mueller himself) are teaming up with the IRS, despite their long history of directly targeting conservatives, to magically find a financial crime that a Trump associate committed years ago.

This will then be used to “turn” (see apply pressure until someone lies) someone like Manafort.

One has to wonder how long the American people are going to allow deep state operatives, with the help of the mainstream media, to openly target a president not because of wrongdoing but because they disagree with him politically?

Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Alex Thomas is an opinion journalist and editor for Intellihub News. He was a founding member of what later became Intellihub.com and an integral part of the team that destroyed the mainstream media blockade of Bilderberg in 2012. 

©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved. 

Russian Billionaire Blasts AP's "Malicious Lies" Over Manafort Accusations

Oleg Deripaska has slammed an AP report claiming he had dealings with former Donald Trump aide Paul Manafort in order to “benefit the Putin government.” The Russian tycoon says he’s ready to take part in “any hearing” in the US Congress on the subject.

The AP report claims that Paul Manafort, the former national chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign, “secretly worked for Russian billionaire” Deripaska.

In a statement published in the Wall Street Journal...

Deripaska, the president one of the largest aluminum companies in the world, RUSAL, said:

"In recent days I have been the subject of a massive and misleading campaign generated by an ‘AP exclusive’, which alleged my involvement in a plan "to greatly benefit the Putin government.""

AP assumed that Manafort had initiated the strategy back in 2005 to “influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government.” The AP exclusive also claimed that Deripaska had signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort.

“I want to resolutely deny this malicious assertion and lie. I have never made any commitments or contacts with the obligation or purpose to covertly promote or advance ‘Putin’s government’ interests anywhere in the world,” Deripaska said.

According to Deripaska, the AP report “falls into negative context of current US-Russian relations and causes fresh unfair and unjustified concerns and alarm in the US Congress about Russian involvement in US domestic affairs.”

He slammed the information presented in the reports as “based on complete lies.”

“I demand that any and all further dissemination of these allegations by the AP or any other media outlet must cease immediately.

I am ready to take part in any hearings conducted by the US Congress on this subject in order to defend my reputation and name,” Deripaska added.

Additionally, Manafort called those allegations a “Democrat Party dirty trick and completely false.”

Trump Admin Distancing Itself from Campaign Manager as Russian Ties Surface

(ANTIMEDIA) “Paul Manafort” is a name we haven’t heard in awhile, but only a few months ago, he was one of the most powerful political operatives in the nation. Manafort has built his career as a Republican strategist over several decades. Washington D.C. is full of power-hungry operatives like the 67-year-old, and after putting in his time as a lobbyist, he was finally on the top of the game and running public relations for the Trump campaign.

However, Manafort was not a typical D.C. lobbyist. The Washington Post described him as “somewhat of a mystery on K Street.” While Manafort does have a residence in Alexandria, an upscale suburb of D.C., he also owns a condo in Trump Tower and another home in Florida. Interestingly, Manafort spent a considerable amount of time lobbying for and advising foreign governments. While lobbying for foreign powers is not unusual (in fact, it’s something of a cottage industry in D.C.), it is strange for a political operative and lobbyist to be holding so many different cards.

Manafort was thrust back into the spotlight on Tuesday when the New York Times reported that the former Trump aide was involved in money laundering for Ukranian president and Putin ally Viktor F. Yanukovych. The paper stated that “documents included an invoice that appeared to show $750,000 funneled through an offshore account and disguised as payment for computers.” It is important to note that the ledger upon which the Times report was based was released by Serhiy A. Leshchenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, who may have political motives.

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When the Trump campaign seemed to be in a tailspin last spring, they brought on Manafort. Trump and then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski hoped his experience as a political operative would help right the keeling ship. A statement released by the Trump campaign claimed “Mr. Manafort [would] direct the campaign’s activities in areas including delegate operations, Washington, DC outreach and the DC office.” But as Manafort’s ties to the pro-Russian Yanukovych first came under scrutiny last August, he was ousted. Trump also seemed to dislike Manafort’s attempts to make him more presidential. After Manafort’s exit, Lewandowski told Politico, “let’s get back to what brought Donald Trump here, which is allowing him to be authentic.”

The New York Times story could not come at a more unfortunate time for the Trump White House. On Monday, FBI Director James Comey testified that the bureau was investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Specifically, Comey stated the agency he leads is “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

However, as the investigation is ongoing, Comey would not comment on which individuals he was investigating. Most suspected that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was among those the FBI was looking into. Speculation over ties between Flynn and Russia led to him being dismissed from the administration. Recently, it was revealed that Flynn was lobbying for Russian interests.

The Trump-Russia conundrum is best categorized as a room full of smoke but no fire. Yet on Tuesday, two things happened that seem to hammer the nail a bit deeper into the Trump administration. First, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer did his damnedest to distance the Trump campaign from Manafort. Asked about the former aide, Spicer stated he played a “limited role (in the campaign) for a very limited amount of time.” That statement was seen as a vast underestimation of Manafort’s role. Yashar Ali, a reporter at The Daily Beast, noted on Twitter that “Spicer said Manafort had a limited role. But in a tweet last year he referred to him as ‘Trump campaign chairman.’” New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush joked that “‘Paul Manafort played a very limited role for a very limited time,’ says Spicer — who will likely later tell us he said this ‘in jest.’”

At another point in the press conference, Spicer stated, “Paul was brought on sometime in June and by the middle of August he was no longer with the campaign, meaning for the final stretch of the general election, he was not involved.” That statement was also incorrect, as Manafort was brought onto the campaign in April, not June.

Further, The Hill reported that Manafort has enlisted the services of JadeRoq, a top crisis management firm in Washington D.C. It is not unusual for someone like Manafort to hire JadeRoq to steady his brand amid his current onslaught of problems. Even so, it doesn’t look good for him. At best, it’s an admittance that he’s in hot water.

We don’t know — and may never know — who the FBI is investigating in relation to Trump campaign members’ contacts with Russia. But the revelations about Manafort make it possible, if not likely, that he’s a top name on the list. Unfortunately for Democrats, who are eager to get to the bottom of the Russian scandal, this investigation will likely take a considerable amount of time. But with Manafort in the line of fire, they now have another Trump aide they can use as leverage to hurry the investigation and throw shade at any of the White House’s claims that they haven’t been at least influenced by the Kremlin.

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