Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Breitbart editor at large Peter Schweizer, also the author of “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” laid how Hillary Clinton ally John Podesta had ties to the Russian government before and while serving in the Obama administration.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Well, in Poland today, President Trump acknowledged that the government of Russia may have meddled in last fall’s election, but they likely weren’t the only country that did. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it could very well have been Russia but I think it could well have been other countries and I won’t be specific but I think a lot of people interfere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So, that was one of the first questions he got. This Russia thing is gone on for months and months and months. Innuendo from the press, the Democratic Party, all of whom have demanded and gotten major investigations of every Trump associate for every conceivable tie to Vladimir Putin’s government. Given that, the question is, why is almost everybody ignoring possible Russia connections on Hillary Clinton’s team? Apparently, they are real.
Peter Schweizer is the author of the book “Clinton Cash,” he is a new op-ed putting out the complex relationship between the Clinton campaign manager John Podesta and the government or Russia.
Peter Schweizer joins us tonight. So Peter, you know, as a daily newspaper reader, I haven’t read much about this. Give us an outline of what we know.
PETER SCHWEIZER, AUTHOR, “CLINTON CASH”: Yes, very few people have covered this. We first reported it back in July, and there’s new information that’s come out. In January of 2011, when John Podesta is advising Hillary Clinton as secretary of state as part of a foreign policy advisory board, advising her on personnel matters, speeches, policy, he joins the board of a Boston-based energy company called Jewel Energy.
Two months after he joins the board, the Russian government in the form of a sovereign wealth fund controlled by Vladimir Putin — this is a fund called Putin’s child by Russia Science minister, they donate, they invest $35 million into this company. It’s a big investment. The company at this point had only raised $110 million. They get board seats, they get memberships on those executive committees, and John Podesta gets 75,000 shares of stock in this company.
When he goes and joins the Obama administration in the White House as a senior counselor, he transfers those shares to his kids. But he continues to receive emails updating him on what Jewel is doing, and even helping them make decisions. So, here you have a situation which John Podesta has a commercial relationship directly with the Russian government. There are two Russians that are sitting on the board of this company along with him, while he is advising Hillary Clinton on the Russian reset and other issues.
CARLSON: Now, just two quick questions. Is he allowed to do this from his perch in the federal government or orchestrate decision-making for the company?
SCHWEIZER: Yes. That’s a great question, Tucker. He was an official advisor but not on the State Department payroll when he was with Hillary Clinton.
CARLSON: Okay.
SCHWEIZER: When he joined the Obama White House, he transferred those shares because he could not hold those shares. The problem is that he says that he fully divested from them, but the emails that came out to Wikileaks indicates that he was still making decisions on the part of those shares that he own. His kids were not involved in the decision making process. That’s the problem.
CARLSON: Very quickly, is there any reason the government of Vladimir Putin would have an interests in this specific energy company?
SCHWEIZER: Absolutely, it has all kinds of applications. Commercial and potentially military. The purpose of this Rusnano fund was to create jobs in Russia, and the $35 million that this company received was ostensibly given to the company or the investment was made to create a manufacturing facility in Russia itself. That factory for some reason was never built, and it’s unclear what happened to that $35 million. But yes, the kind of biofuels that they were developing definitely had military application —
CARLSON: Right.
SCHWEIZER: — and this commercial relationship between Putin and Podesta is taking place during the Russian reset with all kinds of tech transfer going on.
CARLSON: Amazing. I’m not alleging anything, but I’m glad you know that.
Peter Schweizer, thanks a lot for that. I appreciate it.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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