Paul Manafort and two others indicted in Russia probe, Tony Podesta steps down from the Podesta group

  There are two big stories today, and they might be related so I thought I would combine them into one post. Of course the big news is that Paul Mannafort, one of his aides, and a third person were all indicted today in the Russian collusion investigation.

  I think we all expected Paul Manafort’s indictment after the FBI raided his house so this is not surprising but it looks like he is facing quite a bit of jail time for money-laundering, tax fraud, and ten other counts.

  I guess the good news for Donald Trump is that none of these charges appear to be related to collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign. The questions are, what else does he know, if anything? Does he have any information on the campaign he would be willing to trade for his freedom?

  I tend to believe he has no information which can be used against Donald Trump however I wonder about the third person, George Papadopoulos, who has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his timeline on contact he had with a London professor who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.

  The President is claiming George Papadopoulos was a volunteer who was acting on his own but was he? Does he have information on Donald Trump he would be willing to give up to avoid jail time for perjury? I would think this scenario is more likely than Paul Manafort having anything on the President.

  With the news last week that the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign were funding Fusion GPS when that group hired a foreign spy with ties to Russia in order to dig up dirt on Donald Trump I find the timing of these indictments, and the news being leaked to CNN two days ago, to be suspect.

  Which leads me to the second big story of the day: Last week the FBI opened up a criminal investigation into the Podesta Group and its ties to Russia, and today Tony Podesta announced he was stepping down. Here is more on the much less covered story of the day:

Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.

The investigation into Podesta and his firm grew out of investigators’ examination of Manafort’s finances. Manafort organized a PR campaign on behalf of a nonprofit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Podesta Group was one of several firms that were paid to do work on the PR campaign to promote Ukraine in the U.S.

Podesta Group filed paperwork with the Justice Department in April stating that it had done work for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine that also benefited the same Ukrainian political party that Manafort once advised. Podesta Group said at the time it believed its client was a European think tank untethered to a political party.

So it appears as if there are ties between the Podesta Group and Paul Manafort. Oh what a tangled web we weave…

  Where does the investigation go from here and how deep is the corruption? Only time will tell but I do know this: if I was heavily involved in the campaign for either side I would not be sleeping well tonight.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium