Tucker Carlson: Source Says Manafort Worked With Podestas on Russia's Behalf

In an exclusive Tuesday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson reported that Paul Manafort has worked extensively with the Podesta Group since at least 2011 on behalf of Russia.

An unnamed source who used to hold a senior position at the Podesta Group told Carlson that Manafort’s Russian clients wanted to influence Washington and sought the Podesta brothers because of their ties to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The source said he was coming forward out of disgust for how the media has been dishonestly reporting the Russia/Trump collusion investigations.

The source, according to Carlson, said most reporters were not only “getting it wrong — they were getting it backward.”

While media has portrayed former “Black, Manafort & Stone” principal Paul Manafort as a central figure in the Trump/Russia collusion narrative, the source said it is Manafort’s role as a liaison between Russia and the Podesta Group that has become the focus of the investigation.

The source told Carlson that Manafort for years was “representing Russian business and political interests who sought to influence Capitol Hill, Hillary Clinton’s State Department, and the Obama administration.”

Manafort was in frequent contact with the Podesta Group while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, according to the source. He brought a “parade of Russian oligarchs up to the Congress where they met with members and their staffs.”

The vehicle through which Manafort worked for the Russians was what Carlson called a shell company with a headquarters listed in Belgium but whose contact information was linked to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Manafort’s sham company, “the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, was a major client of the Podesta group,” said Carlson.