Curiouser and curiouser… An interesting development amid the various swampy happenings both domestically and internationally. With Robert Mueller focusing on foreign interest lobbying efforts within Washington DC; and amid Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman confronting corruption within the financing of foreign political influence; Podesta CEO Kimberley Fritts announces she is leaving to form her own firm.

Considering that Mrs. Fritts previously announced her intention of remaining at the Podesta group and rebranding the lobbying firm, sans Tony Podesta, questions arise as to what might have made Fritts change her mind.

(Via Politico) Kimberley Fritts, the longtime chief executive of the Podesta Group, is leaving the firm to start her own lobbying shop, according to three Podesta Group staffers.

Tony Podesta, the firm’s founder, tapped Fritts as his successor when he announced he’d step down as chairman last week, hours after an indictment was unsealed, charging Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, with violating foreign lobbying law. The indictment accused Manafort of hiring the Podesta Group to lobby for an ostensibly independent nonprofit that “was under the ultimate direction” of the Ukrainian president, his party and the Ukrainian government. Fritts had been expected to relaunch the Podesta Group under a new name in the days after Podesta stepped down. But after more than a week of working to hammer out the details of what the new firm would look like, Fritts announced at a staff meeting late this afternoon, that she would resign and start a new firm, exacerbating questions about the future of the Podesta Group and its dozens of employees. (read more)