{"id":87774,"date":"2017-10-27T15:43:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T19:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=87774"},"modified":"2017-10-27T15:43:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T19:43:29","slug":"russia-investigation-podestas-manafort-key-figures-being-probed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=87774","title":{"rendered":"RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: Podestas, Manafort key figures being probed"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Tucker: Source Says Podesta Brothers &amp; Manafort, Not Trump, &#8216;Central Figures&#8217; in Russia Probe<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->FOX News Insider<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/video.insider.foxnews.com\/v\/embed.js?id=5624142228001&#038;w=466&#038;h=263\"><\/script><noscript>Watch the latest video at <a href=\"\/\/video.foxnews.com\">video.foxnews.com<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>A thus-far-reliable source who used to be involved with Clinton allies John and Tony Podesta told Tucker Carlson that press reports appearing to implicate President Trump in Russian collusion are exaggerated.<\/p>\n<p>The source, who Carlson said he would not yet name, said he worked for the brothers&#8217; Podesta Group and was privy to some information from Robert Mueller&#8217;s special investigation.<\/p>\n<p>While media reports describe former &#8220;Black, Manafort &amp; Stone&#8221; principal Paul Manafort as Trump&#8217;s main tie to the investigation, the source said it is Manafort&#8217;s role as a liaison between Russia and the Podesta Group that is drawing the scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;vehicle&#8221; Manafort worked for was what Carlson called a &#8220;sham&#8221; company with a headquarters listed in Belgium but whose contact information was linked to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.<\/p>\n<p>Manafort was, at the time, representing Russian business and political interests during the Obama era.<\/p>\n<p>The source said the Podesta Group was in regular contact with Manafort while Hillary Clinton was America&#8217;s chief diplomat.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, the group hired away one of Clinton&#8217;s deputies, David Adams, effectively establishing contact between the Washington firm and Clinton&#8217;s office in Foggy Bottom, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>The source said Tony Podesta spoke regularly with Clinton and was the one who personally hired Adams.<\/p>\n<p>During this time, the Uranium One deal was being facilitated by the White House.<\/p>\n<p>According to Carlson, &#8220;Manafort was clear that Russia wanted to cultivate ties to Hillary&#8221; because she appeared to be the presumptive 45th president.<\/p>\n<p>Carlson said the media&#8217;s description of the probe being focused on Trump as an individual is &#8220;mostly bogus&#8221; if the source&#8217;s explanation pans out.<\/p>\n<p>Carlson said he has checked out some of the information given by the source, and it has thus far proved accurate.<\/p>\n<p>John Podesta was Clinton&#8217;s campaign chairman, and Manafort served as Trump&#8217;s campaign chief during the summer of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Watch more above.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/insider.foxnews.com\/2017\/10\/24\/tucker-carlson-source-says-podesta-group-and-paul-manafort-subject-mueller-russia-probe\">http:\/\/insider.foxnews.com\/2017\/10\/24\/tucker-carlson-source-says-podesta-group-and-paul-manafort-subject-mueller-russia-probe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tucker: Source Says Podesta Brothers &amp; Manafort, Not Trump, &#8216;Central Figures&#8217; in Russia Probe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}