Podestas Threaten Tucker Carlson for Reporting the Truth About Russiagate

The Podestas' lawyer just sent Tucker Carlson of all people, a 'cease and desist' letter, demanding that he stop his ground-breaking reporting about the Podestas' deep involvement in DC corruption - involvement that might well ensnare the Clintons themselves.

This is extraordinary on three levels.

First, it is a foolish move on the part of the Podestas, because it suggests incompetence and desperation in equal measure.

Sending a cease and desist letter to one of the biggest news shows in the country is like threatening a charging elephant with a fly swatter, especially as Carlson explains quite convincingly, it has no basis in fact.

Second, it seems to confirm what most observers are saying - that the most important result of the investigation into Paul Manafort will be mortal damage to the deeply corrupt swamp surrounding the Clinton political machine, possibly leading to that machine to sacrifice one or both of the Clintons to the insatiable blood-lust that the Clintons themselves provoked with the whole Russiagate hoax.

Sweet irony. Sweet justice.

One look at the graphic on Carlson's set, is enough to perceive the damage being done to the Democrat machine.

Rachel Maddow ran graphics for the past year trying to link Trump to Russia, the difference being that she had no evidence, just a lot of rabid wishful thinking, or perhaps it was just flat-out lying.

Carlson, as bespeaks a professional journalist, has proof. The difference speaks volumes about the ethics and intelligence of the two evening news powerhouses. Maddow has damaged her brand with her ranting - Carlson has burnished his by matter-of-factly presenting evidence.

Third - it generates headlines like this one, which are proliferating across the media as I write these words, and gives Carlson another excuse to maul the Podestas on his nightly show.

The move is so bone-headed and amateurish that some are speculating that the lawyer who sent it is working for the other side - either that, or Tony Podesta is completely out of his league and headed for an embarrassing public drubbing. Both scenarios make the point 2 more likely.

Last week Carlson broke the story that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation had uncovered far more dirt on the Podestas than on anyone else - and that Carlson has a source, a former senior employee of the Podesta Group, who has provided Carlson with devastating evidence against the Podestas.

Here is Carlson's bombshell report from last week. Bullet points follow afterwards (hat tip to Zeropoint Now).

• 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.