Thread by @artisbrutal2021

Think I need to revisit this article :

"The Justice Department dropped its investigation, .. Mr. Trump was defeated and Mr. Podesta’s longtime allies took control in Washington.

Now Mr. Podesta is exploring a return to a landscape he once dominated...

"Mr. Podesta, who has known Mr. Biden and some of his closest aides for decades, noted approvingly that the Biden campaign and the DNC had accepted a combined $2,750 in donations from him last year, and that he had been welcomed at a virtual fund-raiser hosted by

the campaign’s chairman, Steve Ricchetti, a longtime friend who once sold his lobbying firm to Mr. Podesta.

Mr. Ricchetti is now a counselor to Mr. Biden in the White House, while his brother Jeff Ricchetti, a former employee of Mr. Podesta’s lobbying firm, has seen his lobbying

income increase significantly.

Over the years, Tony Podesta became known for his flashy Italian suits and loafers and his pricey collections of art and real estate. At various times, he owned a Louise Bourgeois sculpture ..

".. former neighbors still discuss an installation in his guest bathroom consisting of a closed-circuit video camera installed inside a toilet allowing users to observe their bodily processes from a unique angle...

"His firm’s demise stemmed primarily from its involvement in one strand of the special counsel’s investigation. The firm took on a client with ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was president of Ukraine, in 2012..

"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..

🤔

"The firm almost immediately began winding down. Mr. Podesta’s art was removed from its office walls and employees began leaving en masse, with a number of them banding together to start a new firm...

"Josh Lahey is the second Podesta Group principal to start his own firm in recent weeks, as negotiations for Kimberley Fritts, the firm’s longtime chief executive, to take over the firm from Podesta faltered and eventually fell apart.."
politico.com/newsletters/po…

"Months later, the special counsel referred the investigation of Mr. Podesta’s firm and Mercury to federal prosecutors in Manhattan They conducted more interviews with lobbyists who worked on the Ukraine account, but informed Mr. Podesta, Mercury and their lobbyists

in September 2019 that they would not be charged.

In the meantime, art had gone from being a hobby to a profession for Mr. Podesta, who sold the Bourgeois sculpture for $5.6 million. ..

🤔

"He continued paying his curator, Debra Corrie, whose salary had previously been paid partly by the firm. They relocated some of his art & their offices to a penthouse condo in Washington that Mr. Podesta bought for $2.6 million in 2018, where they showed the art by appointment "

2 email addresses for Debra Corrie at the Inter-American Development Bank 👆

She worked there from 2007 to 2014
zoominfo.com/p/Debra-Corrie…

2010 Annual Report of the IDB Cultural Center : issuu.com/dcorrie/docs/2…

"Mr. Podesta said he was relying on art sales as his primary source of income, supplemented by Social Security and some investment income.
But when the pandemic hit, “the buyers all sort of left,” he said.
He sold the penthouse condo .. and secured a P.P.P. loan of nearly $43,000

"Lately, he’s been operating his art dealership out of his Kalorama home, where his neighbors include the Obamas, & where he hosted a recent dinner for collectors and museum officials highlighting the works of Brian Dailey "
megancoyle.com/2018/01/12/bri…

🤔

🍿

"Looking back at the investigation into his Ukraine lobbying that forced his exit from lobbying, he said “if I had known what I know now, I never would have taken this client,” adding “there were all sorts of places where errors were made, but there was no malice.”

End.