Kimberley Fritts, the chief executive of the Podesta Group, told employees during a Thursday staff meeting that the firm would cease to exist at the end of the year, according to two sources. Employees were asked to clear out their desks and were told they may not be paid beyond November 15, multiple sources said.
Fritts told the employees the Podesta Group may try to provide health care through the end of the year, according to two people in the meeting.
How much trouble is Tony Podesta in?
The developments come after the Podesta Group was tied last week to Mueller's indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
after being charged with failing to file as foreign agents relating to a decade of work they did for the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia political party in the Ukraine.
Mueller's special investigation team has also interviewed multiple people from the Podesta Group, which was recruited by Manafort and Gates to work along with another firm.
Talk of potentially closing the Podesta Group marks a dramatic downfall of one of K Street's most iconic and well-connected firms. In its heyday, Podesta Group was the largest non-law firm lobbying organization in Washington. Tony Podesta, the firm's founder and chairman, helped fuel the company with work for foreign governments. He and his brother, John, founded the company almost three decades ago. (John Podesta chaired
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked HillaryClinton
... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as
the smartest woman in the world,usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away...
's 2016 presidential campaign. He left the firm in 1993.)
A Podesta Group spokesperson declined to comment for this story. Fritts could not be reached for comment Friday via her Podesta Group email.
Mueller is looking into whether the Podesta Group properly identified to federal authorities its foreign advocacy for the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, according to people familiar with the investigation. The ECFMU is a Brussels-based non-profit group that federal prosecutors have called a mouthpiece for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.