NY Times: Russia Scandal Befalls Two Brothers: John and Tony Podesta

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Russia Scandal Befalls Two Brothers: John and Tony Podesta

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WASHINGTON — One is a rail-thin liberal idealist who spent his career in government, on campaigns and at think tanks. The other is an overweight pragmatist who made a fortune lobbying for all manner of liberal boogeymen.

And now, in a twist with Shakespearean undertones, the two influential Washington brothers have found themselves on opposite sides of the scandals over Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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Mr. Podesta’s older brother, Tony Podesta, has been ensnared in the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, into Russia’s meddling in the race and whether it involved any associates of President Trump. The efforts by his firm, the Podesta Group, to win support for the agenda of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the Russia-aligned former president of Ukraine, were cited in an indictment handed down last month against two former campaign aides to Mr. Trump, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who arranged the Ukrainian lobbying work.

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Mr. Trump, for his part, went after both brothers last month, lumping them together as emblematic of “the swamp” of Washington special interests against which he campaigned.

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James Carville, who has known John Podesta for years through Democratic political circles. Mr. Carville said he was less acquainted with Tony Podesta, but added that “by reputation, you can’t put them in the same book. John is one of the straightest guys I know. Everybody says, ‘Can you believe that those guys are brothers?’”

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Over the next 23 years, the brothers’ paths intertwined. They wove in and out of campaigns and car-pooled together to Georgetown University’s law school, from which they both earned degrees in 1976. Tony Podesta joined the United States attorney’s office in Washington, while John Podesta went to work at the Justice Department.

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“Tony Podesta may have clients that are way to the right of him in politics,” he said, “but neither John nor Tony Podesta, no matter who their clients are, have withdrawn one inch from being liberal Democrats with progressive values.”

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