Rep. Louie Gohmert, an outspoken House Republican from Texas, is calling for a congressional investigation of John Podesta’s role with Rusnano, a state-run company founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.
Podesta — Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman and former President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff — first made contact with the Russian firm in 2011, when he joined the boards and executive committees of three related entities: Boston-based Joule Unlimited; Rotterdam-based Joule Global Holdings; Joule Global Stichting, the company’s controlling interest. All are high-tech renewable energy enterprises.
Three months after Podesta’s arrival, Joule Unlimited accepted a 1 billion ruble investment from Rusnano, amounting to $35 million in U.S. currency. The firm also awarded a Joule board seat in February 2012 to Anatoly Chubais, Rusnano’s CEO, who has been depicted as a corrupt figure.
Podesta has attempted to downplay his relationship with Joule and Rusnano, but it could come to haunt him.
One potential legal problem for him relates to the time he joined former President Barack Obama’s White House staff in 2014 as a senior counselor and failed to reveal his 2011 Joule stock vesting agreement in his government financial disclosure form.
Further, he failed to disclose 75,000 common shares of Joule stock he received, as disclosed in a WikiLeaks email.
After Podesta began working at the White House, his lawyer indicated in a Jan. 6, 2014 email that he had not yet finished the legal work on the private transfer of the stock to a family-owned entity called Leonido Holdings, LLC.
Gohmert’s call for an examination of Podesta’s Russian ties comes as Washington is in the grips of a set of allegations about Russian ties to President Donald Trump and his aides, as well as charges of Russian influence during the presidential election.
Gohmert is troubled about the Podesta-Russia connection, telling TheDCNF, “this certainly needs to be reviewed to see if there really is something nefarious going on with these activities.” Gohmert sits on the House Judiciary Committee and is vice chair of its subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security.
And lest we forget the June 29, 2017 interview between Podesta and Marie Bartiromo. Maybe that is why Mueller has hired so many experts on tracking money laundering fraud:
MARIA BARTIROMO: Do you find it odd that there has been so much attention on the Trump campaign for potential 'collusion' with Russia, when it is the Democrats who really have deeper and stronger ties to Russia?
I mean, John, as I ask you that, your own ties to Russian entities -- you joined the board of a small Russian energy company in 2011, two months later a Russian entity owned by the Kremlin invested $35 million in the company, you were given 75,000 shares in a Russian company, which you failed to disclose when you became an Obama associate.
JOHN PODESTA: Maria, that is not true. I fully disclosed, I was completely compliant, and by the way, I devested before I started working at the White House.
BARTIROMO: But where did you divest to? Why do some people say you divested to your adult children?
PODESTA: I divested it consistent with the advice I was given by the White House counsel's office... And the fact that you're picking through my emails that were stolen by the Russians via WikiLeaks-- ... I didn't have any stock in any Russian company.
BARTIROMO: Tjhat's not true John.
PODESTA: It is not a Russian company... I didn't have any shares in any Russian company.
Terriffic post:
Further, he failed to disclose 75,000 common shares of Joule stock he received, as disclosed in a WikiLeaks email.
Maria Bartiromo confronted Podesta numerous times on the 75k shares and he tried all he could to lie about it but she was a pit bull and nailed him big time.
Its here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgx8jId0AkY
priceless.
2004.
2004. Hmmm, that’s interesting.
Wasn’t the Clinton Crime Family Foundation set up about then?