Exclusive: Two sources tell 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' that
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has offered lobbyist Tony Podesta immunity to
testify against Paul Manafort. #Tucker
Exclusive: Two sources tell 'Tucker
Carlson Tonight' that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has offered lobbyist Tony
Podesta immunity to testify against Paul Manafort. Fox News [#Tucker
FOX] Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service
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The number one network in cable, FNC has been the most watched television news
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cable news landscape, routinely notching the top ten programs in the genre.]
Tony Podesta has been offered immunity by Special Counsel
Robert Mueller to testify against Paul Manafort, Fox News' Tucker Carlson
reported, citing two unnamed sources.
Podesta is the founder of the Podesta Group and brother of
John Podesta, who was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The Podesta Group reportedly worked with Manafort -- a
former chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign -- to lobby on behalf of
Ukrainian interests in the United States, without properly registering at the
time under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), Carlson said.
Manafort and the group worked on a campaign called the
European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, the Washington Times reported.
"In other words, for a near identical crime, Bill and
Hillary's friend could escape and emerge completely unscathed while Paul
Manafort may rot in jail," Carlson said.
Podesta did not register as a foreign agent under FARA,
Carlson said in a segment last October.
Tony Podesta reportedly tells his
staff he will fight the allegations; reaction from Rep. Doug Collins, vice
chair of the House Republican Conference and a member of the Judiciary
Committee.]
Mueller is also offering immunity to five potential
witnesses in the upcoming trial of Manafort, the Washington Examiner reported.
Mueller's team is requesting "use immunity," which
is a limited type of immunity, the publication reported, citing court
documents filed Tuesday.
The five people have not been charged or identified publicly
with the case, prosecutors for Mueller’s team said, according to the Examiner.
Tony Podesta resigned from his lobbying group in October in
response to Mueller’s investigation of the firm, the report said.
The firm was reportedly closed by the end of last year.
The special counsel’s office did not immediately respond for
comment.
Manafort is accused of multiple financial crimes in
connection with lobbying work he performed in Ukraine. The first of his two
upcoming trials, in Virginia, is scheduled to begin next week.
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this story.
_______________________
Amy Lieu is a news editor and
reporter for Fox News.
This is a cross post of Western Journalism and WND
about the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates as well as an apparent plea
deal for George Papadopoulos squeezed for lying about his interaction with
Russians that perhaps Papadopoulos should have registered as a foreign agent.
The Papadopoulos plea deal is a bit sketchy because he was a volunteer with a
bit of uncertainty if acting on his own volition or was coached by someone to
contact Russians.
Before posting this morning, I was watching Fox and
Friends inattentively. A gal was interviewed in which I didn’t catch her
profession. However, I saw her again on my DVR recorded premiered show called Fox
News at Night with Shannon Bream. On Bream’s news show I discovered her
name is Sidney Powell a former Prosecutor and author of Licensed
to Lie. She criticized the wording of the indictment as being
weak citing laws and statutes that she believes have a sketchy application. Powell
also criticized Mueller’s lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann for sketch
prosecutorial practices. Here is a quote about Weissman similar to what Powell
said on Fox and Friends:
But I did find another person -J. Christian Adams - who had a similar criticism of the weak
indictment put together by Mueller and Dem-oriented Special Prosecutor team:
New questions surrounding the
future of the Russia probe; reaction on 'The Story.'
I need to note that when I Googled the indictments against
Paul Manafort and Rick (Richard) Gates, the Google search results went
primarily to Leftist news sites and the Left oriented Mainstream Media (MSM).
The headlines of those searches indicate disgusting glee that the indictments
against Manafort and Gates will soon bring down President Donald Trump. This
Fake News glee was related even though the loosely worded indictments are
focused on Manafort/Gates business dealing with Russia before Barack Obama was
even President.
How in the world is that Trump/Russia collusion in the
November 2016 election?
Fire Mueller! Get a different Special Prosecutor. Begin
looking at Crooked Hillary and husband, Dem leadership – particularly involved
in Crooked Hillary’s campaign, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, Loretta
Lynch and I have no doubt – into former President Barack Hussein Obama. For
what? The real Russian Collusion for starters.
Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President
Donald Trump who left the Trump campaign under a cloud amid allegations of
improper dealings involving the consulting business he had previously operated,
turned himself in to the FBI on Monday, according to multiple reports.
Manafort and longtime associate Rick Gates, who joined and
left the Trump campaign at the same time as Manafort, were indicted as part of
the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller was appointed to head up a wide-ranging
investigation into allegations that there had been collusion between the Trump
campaign and Russia.
Manafort and Gates were indicted on 12 charges, including
“conspiracy against the United States,” “conspiracy to launder money” and
“false statements.”
The New York Times reported
Manafort “had been under investigation for violations of federal tax law, money
laundering and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying.”
BREAKING: Ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and
Richard Gates indicted on 12 counts, including "conspiracy against the
United States" pic.twitter.com/zabSHg5Yre
Manafort arrived at the FBI’s field office in Washington on
Monday morning. Gates turned himself in shortly afterward.
Manafort’s home was
raided by the FBI in July, and a number of documents were seized at that time.
Manafort, who piloted Trump’s campaign between June and
August 2016, has been under investigation by the FBI and Justice Department for
his relationship with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
At the time of Manafort’s departure from the Trump
campaign, The Associated Press reported
that from 2012 to 2014, Manafort and Gates had been involved in a lobbying
effort to increase American support for a pro-Russian Ukrainian government and
did not disclose that they were working for a foreign government as required
under federal law.
Under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Manafort
retroactively registered in
June with the Justice Department for the work he did during that time, for
which he was paid more than $17 million.
“Paul’s work ended well before he joined Candidate Trump’s
campaign,” spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement at the time, according
to Politico.
“Paul was not simultaneously working as a foreign agent while he was working
for Trump.”
White House attorney Ty Cobb has said Trump has no fears
that Manafort might trade damaging testimony against Trump for a lighter
sentence in some sort of deal.
“The president hasno concerns in
terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the
White House,” Cobb said.
Trump has said that his campaign never colluded with Russia.
++++++
MANAFORT INDICTED, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER PLEADS GUILTY IN
RUSSIA PROBE
Former Trump chairman charged with conspiring to
defraud U.S. in dealings with Ukraine
WASHINGTON – Former
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate surrendered to federal
authorities Monday on felony charges of conspiracy against the United
States and other charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of
Russian influence on the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, a former campaign adviser to President
Donald Trump, George Papadopoulos, entered a guilty plea in the
investigation, admitting he lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.
It alleges 12 counts, including conspiracy against the
U.S., conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered foreign agent, misleading
statements and failing to file reports of foreign bank accounts. The charges
relate to overseas business operations.
Watch Manafort walking into FBI headquarters with his
attorney: [Blog Editor: You’ll have to go WND to watch. I can’t find the
embed or the Fox News link.]
Papadopoulos, whose Oct. 5 guilty plea was unsealed
Monday, admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions
with “foreign nationals” offering “dirt” on Clinton who allegedly were
attempting to line up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
According to Mueller’s filing, Papadopoulos met with a
female Russian national on March 24, 2016, shortly after learning he had become
a campaign adviser. Papadopoulos believed the Russian had connections with the
Russian government and could arrange a meeting with the Trump campaign. The
next month, he met with a professor in London who said operatives in Moscow had
“thousands” of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The filing, however, does not specify
whether the reference was to the emails stolen from the Democratic National
Committee’s computers.
Responding to reporters at the White House press briefing
Monday, press secretary Sarah Sanders said Papadopoulos didn’t have an
influential role in the campaign, describing him as a volunteer on an advisory
council that met one time during the year.
“Any actions he took would have been on his own,” Sanders
said.
In a tweet Monday morning, Trump emphasized the Manafort
indictment had nothing to do with Russian collusion.
“Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part
of the Trump campaign,” Trump tweeted. ‘But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????”
“Also, there is NO COLLUSION!” he said.
Mueller was appointed to investigate claims of
Russian collusion with the Trump campaign after the Democrats’ 2016
election loss, but now there are allegations against Democrats.
Last week, the Washington Post reported Hillary Clinton’s
2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for the research for the largely
fabricated anti-Trump dossier. Late Wednesday, a complaint was filed with the Federal
Election Commission charging Clinton’s campaign and the DNC
violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for the dossier.
Also last week, a source claimed that the Podesta Group, run by John Podesta’s
brother Tony, is a target of Mueller’s investigation.
And The Hill reported that
before a government panel in which Hillary Clinton was a member approved the
sale of a company controlling 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves, the FBI was
sitting on evidence Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery,
kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to expand Moscow’s nuclear
business in the U.S.
In addition, a congressional inquiry led by Rep. Devin
Nunes, R-Calif., is focusing on how aides to President Obama “unmasked”
individuals caught up in government surveillance.
Manafort has denied wrongdoing. Many of the charges date
back as far as 2006.
Among the allegations is that Manafort moved $75 million to
offshore accounts without declaring the income for taxation purposes. He then
allegedly used $18 million to “fund a lavish lifestyle,” as the London
Daily Mail described it.
FBI agents staged an early morning raid on Manafort’s home
last summer, confiscating records.
According to the New York Times, Gates’ name appears on
documents linked to companies that Manafort’s firm established in Cyprus to
receive payments from his clients in Eastern Europe.
President Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, assured reporters last
week Manafort does not have damaging information about the president to offer
prosecutors.
“The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to
what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House,” Cobb said.
Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 and
developed a strategy that convinced delegates not to break with Trump in favor
of establishment candidates. Trump then appointed the veteran Republican
strategist as chairman and chief strategist of his campaign.
Months later, Trump fired Manafort after learning his
chairman received more than $12 million in undisclosed payments from former
Ukrainian president Victor F. Yanukovych, who he spent years working for as a
political consultant.
The case advanced amid claims Russian President Vladimir
Putin colluded with Trump campaign officials to rig the 2016 presidential
election against Hillary Clinton.
Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department in May to
lead the investigation into Trump campaign officials’ relationships with
Russian operatives. But the focus now actually may be turning to the Democrats.
President Trump contends the “real Russia story” is the sale
of 20 percent of U.S. uranium assets to a Russian company under Clinton’s
watch.
Critics also have pointed to Mueller’s relationship with
fired FBI chief James Comey and the fact that he stacked his team of
investigators with lawyers who had openly supported Hillary Clinton in the
election. The Mail reported it was unclear if Mueller still has a strategy to
“squeeze” Manafort” for information about the 2016 election “and Russian’s
possible interference with it.”
The allegations concern actions that all predate the Trump
campaign, and Trump’s name doesn’t appear in the 31-page indictment by Mueller,
who in the document makes no allegations of collusion with Russia.
The case has been assigned to Judge Amy Jackson, an Obama
appointee.
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MANAFORT INDICTED, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER PLEADS GUILTY IN RUSSIA PROBE
WND, formerly WorldNetDaily, can best be explained by its mission
statement: “WND is an independent news company dedicated to uncompromising
journalism, seeking truth and justice and revitalizing the role of the free
press as a guardian of liberty. We remain faithful to the traditional and
central role of a free press in a free society – as a light exposing
wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power.
“We also seek to stimulate a free-and-open debate about the great
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Indeed, WND is a fiercely independent news site committed to
hard-hitting investigative reporting of government waste, fraud and abuse.
Founded by Joseph and Elizabeth Farah in May 1997, it is now a
leading Internet news site in both traffic and influence.
CAIR has received more in foreign money than Russian spies & ex-Congressman. Russian Spies and ex-Congressman have been indicted. CAIR's foreign donations make the spies and Ex-Congressman look like "chump change" in comparison but has not been indicted. Why?
JRH 7/22/10 ******************************* Foreign Agents: What CAIR, Anna Chapman, and Rep. Mark Siljander Have in Common
Late last month provocative pictures of alleged Russian spy Anna Chapman graced newspapers and blogs worldwide. The stories alongside the mandatory eye-candy featured scandalous accounts of “spying” and “espionage.” But despite the insinuations, the Russian “spies” in question were never charged with spying or espionage. Fox News reported that instead the ten Russians in American custody were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and “failing to register with the Department of Justice as Foreign Agents under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).” FARA, first enacted in 1938 to counter Nazi infiltration, is a disclosure statute requiring entities acting in the U.S. on behalf of a “foreign principal” (in this case the Russian government) to register and make periodic disclosure of their relationship. (Below, Anna Chapman flanked by former Congressman Mark Siljander and CAIR Communications Director, Ibrahim “Dougie” Hooper. More on each follows.)
Another U.S.-based entity that has been accused of violating FARA – by the Center for Security Policy and other leading intelligence and counter-terrorism sources – is the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The CAIR Observatory.org website (http://cairunmasked.org/) documents that CAIR has received $6.6 million in cash and loans and $54.5 million in pledges from foreign principals based in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait; has met and coordinated with representatives of those foreign principals on more than 30 occasions; and has carried out over 70 political and propaganda operations on behalf of those same foreign principals.
Shortly after 9/11 CAIR released a carefully qualified statement: “We do not support directly or indirectly, or receive support from, any overseas… government.”
Unfortunately for CAIR, FARA § 611 (b) defines a “foreign principal” far more broadly than just a foreign government. It can also be a foreign political party, partnership, association, corporation, organization, or even an individual based outside of the United States.
For a 72-year-old law, the FARA statute is very much alive and kicking in 2010. We’re seeing it in the news nearly every week now. Underfunded and underestimated, the attorneys in the small FARA office are protecting America’s security, in spite of an increasingly politicized DOJ environment.
Just last week former Congressman Mark D. Siljander of Michigan pleaded guilty to violating FARA in connection with his work for a foreign organization; namely the Islamic American Relief Agency, a.k.a. the Islamic Africa Relief Agency (IARA), a non-governmental “charity” based in Khartoum, Sudan. The IARA allegedly paid Mr. Siljander $75,000 in exchange for his lobbying efforts to have its name removed from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of terror-supporting organizations.
The Siljander case is nearly a point-by-point match for CAIR’s work as an agent for “foreign principals” in the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the Dubai Ports scandal of 2006. As part of a senior CAIR delegation to Dubai in May 2006, Board Chairman Parvez Ahmad stated, “If the image of Islam and Muslims is not repaired in America, Muslim and Arab business interests will continue to be on a downward slide in the US.” CAIR was meeting with Khalaf Al Habtoor and other wealthy Dubai businessmen to solicit up to $50 million in donations to fund a public relations campaign in the US. CAIR’s Ahmad assured the audience, “Do not think about your contributions as donations. Think about it from the perspective of rate of return. The investment of $50 million will give you billions of dollars in return for 50 years.”
Within days of the fundraiser UAE Minister of Finance Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum endorsed a proposal to build an endowment property for CAIR in the U.S. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said, ‘The endowment will serve as a source of income and will further allow us to reinvigorate our media campaign…”
Furthermore, in 2007 CAIR received $325,000 in cash from another “foreign principal” based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). This mammoth pan-Islamic NGO composed of 57 governments is known for its “10 Year Plan of Action,” calling on all governments worldwide to institute “deterrent punishments” for the “crime” of “Islamophobia.” This is the same OIC that annually sponsors (and passes) resolutions in the U.N. General Assembly to prohibit “defamation of religions” (i.e. Islam). Barack Obama controversially appointed Rashad Hussein as a special US envoy to the OIC this year. The $325,000 transferred to CAIR was earmarked to fund a major OIC conference on “Islamophobia” at Georgetown University.
The ten Russian spies acted as sleeper agents for the Russian government. They allegedly received “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from Moscow. They were indicted under FARA by the Department of Justice in 2010.
Former Congressman Siljander lobbied members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to remove the Islamic Africa Relief Agency (IARA) from their terrorist sponsor list. He received $75,000 from the Sudan-based NGO for his services. Siljander was indicted under FARA by the Department of Justice in 2008, and pleaded guilty in 2010.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has lobbied for “foreign principals” and has conducted dozens of political influence operations in the US on their behalf. We have posted conclusive documentation at the CAIR Observatory website proving that CAIR has received $6,698,454 in cash and loans from “foreign principals” since their founding in 1994. So how close are they to being indicted under FARA?
The next few months may tell. On February 2, 2010 Politico.com reported that FBI agents issued a grand jury subpoena seeking internal CAIR documents. Lynn Haaland, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the DOJ’s National Security Division was listed as an “interested party,” indicating that FARA may have been a factor in the investigation.
Ten Russians, one former congressman, and CAIR were all paid by foreign donors. The Russians, the congressman and CAIR all followed their paymasters’ orders. The Russians and the congressman got chump change compared to CAIR’s millions in foreign funding.
The Russians were indicted and deported. The ex-congressman was indicted and pleaded guilty.
What’s in CAIR’s future? _______________________ An Andrew Breitbart Presents blog. Editor-in-Chief: Peter Schweitzer Featuring: Frank Gaffney and Blackfive
