Tony Podesta Weighs Return to Lobbying and Democratic Politics
Though Mr. Podestaâs firm had disclosed the client under less-detailed congressional lobbying rules and retroactively registered with the Justice Department, that did not stop the special counselâs office from subpoenaing the records and employees of his firm and others that worked with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates.
Mr. Podesta questioned the motives and methods behind the special counselâs investigation. He referred to one of the investigationâs lead prosecutors, Andrew Weismann, as âInspector Javert,â the police character in Les MisĂ©rables who became obsessed with ensuring the capture and punishment of a parolee who had been convicted of stealing bread to feed his family.
âI didnât even steal a loaf of bread,â Mr. Podesta said, asserting that he was targeted at least partly because the special counsel âthought it was a good idea to have a Democrat, clearly.â
Mr. Podesta said his firmâs finances were stretched thin, partly because it paid as much as $5 million in legal fees for employees who were subpoenaed by prosecutors, and partly because the investigation spooked clients, who left the firm.
Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates were charged with unregistered foreign lobbying, tax fraud and other crimes in October 2017. The indictment identified the Podesta Group and a firm with which it worked on the Ukraine effort, Mercury Public Affairs, though not by name, as having worked as part of a âschemeâ with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates to gain support for Mr. Yanukovych, while evading foreign lobbying disclosure requirements.
Within a day, the Podesta Groupâs bank, citing the special counselâs investigation and the draining of the firmâs accounts to pay the staffâs legal fees, canceled its credit line, rendering the firm illiquid, Mr. Podesta said.
He told his employees in a staff meeting that he was stepping back from the firm, citing attacks from Mr. Trump and his allies in the conservative media as making it âimpossible to run a public affairs shop,â according to people in attendance.