The problem here is that the Russian oligarchs he's been consorting with are so dirty that even Putin is after them. That blows apart Podesta's dishonest narrative about "Russians hacked the election" and rival Donald Trump supposedly colluding with them, but also the issue of Putin's supposed animosity toward Hillary Clinton, as cited by FBI director James Comey Monday. What may be really going on is Podesta getting caught up in an internal power struggle among the boyars of the Kremlin that's of his own making.

Was there anyone more pious, anyone more inclined to stroke his chin and intone for guarding national security in the wake of the WikiLeaks revelations than Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta? Turns out the wily Democrat operative was neck-deep with the Russians he intoned against all along, through a Russian-financed company called Joule, according to a new report from the Daily Caller News Foundation .

To hear Podesta tell it, the "narrative" is all about "the Russians" hacking the election. Here are some choice quotes from Podesta last December:

"We now know that the CIA has determined Russia's interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump," he said in a statement to Politico. "This should distress every American." Podesta issued his statement in response to letter from Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine, a voting member of the electoral college, to request a security briefing before she casts a ballot. "We further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States," Pelosi's letter read. Podesta's statement floats the suggestion that electors could theoretically select a different candidate for president than Donald Trump. "The bipartisan electors' letter raises very grave issues involving our national security," Podesta said in a statement. "Electors have a solemn responsibility under the Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions addressed."

It's horse hockey.

Podesta made these remarks even as he had benefited from U.S. tech transfers to Russia's military during the time he sat on the board of a renewable energy company called Joule and had ties to Rusnano, a financing arm known in Moscow as "Putin's baby." (GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas is calling for an investigation of that, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation report.) Podesta concealed his stock holdings to this company as he joined the Obama administration and still hasn't been held accountable for it. Yet at the same time, he was around when a lot of quid pro quo involving U.S. tech transfers to Russia was going on, raising significant questions as to whether the U.S. was sold down the river during the Obama administration.

Here's where it gets interesting. Chubais is one of the most reviled men in Russia. He sold billions in state assets to oligarchs and crony capitalists for pennies on the dollar while ordinary Russians got nothing but nightmarish currency devaluation, which destroyed their savings, in Russia's miserable privatization effort from communism back in the 1990s. He's the man who teamed up with Clinton-linked advisers at Harvard and operated so incompetently that they effectively made Russians hate capitalism. As a result, the Russians elected Putin in 1999. Podesta's ties to the Clinton machine's Harvard minions such as Larry Summers amount to ties to Chubais. Note also that Podesta apparently gives well compensated lectures on energy matters to the school. Podesta's links to George Soros also lead to Chubais.

Around the time the WikiLeaks emails were hacked, it's worth noting that Chubais and Putin had been in the throes of a falling out, dating from at least 2013. Putin accused Chubais of being a CIA agent at that time, and in 2015, another Chubais ally, a Rusnano official, was placed under house arrest for embezzlement. In November 2016, Russia's economy minister, still another Chubais ally, was arrested in November. Chubais wrote on his Facebook page that it came as "a shock."

The timeframe of these moves roughly coincides with Podesta's time in the White House and the deterioration of Russian-U.S. relations in the failed "reset." The Democratic players, including Podesta, coincide with Harvard's involvement with Chubais. It's also worth noting that a four low-level officials were arrested in Moscow for the supposed Russian hacking – something that also could have been a strike against Chubais, because if Putin were hacking, why would he arrest his own hacker?

Keep an eye on this Gohmert investigation. What emerges from it may put to pasture the ridiculous narrative Podesta is pushing about Russian hacking. In truth, it may be that he got mixed up with some very gamy characters so bad they've got Putin after them in Moscow.