John Podesta American politician Date of Birth: 08.01.1949 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Legal Career and Public Service
3. Congressional and Lobbyist Career
4. Clinton Presidential Years
5. Later Years
6. Advocacy for Government Transparency and UFO Disclosure
7. Business Interests and International Engagement
8. WikiLeaks Release and Allegations
9. Personal Life

Early Life and Education

John Podestà was born in Chicago, Illinois, on January 8, 1949, to Mary Cocoris Podestà of Greek descent and John David Podestà Sr. of Italian descent. Growing up in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, Podestà attended Lane Tech High School, graduating in 1967. He then pursued a degree at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, graduating in 1971.

Legal Career and Public Service

In 1976, Podestà earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Georgetown University Law Center. He subsequently worked as an attorney in the Land and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1976 to 1977. In 1978-1979, he served as a special assistant to the director of the federal agency ACTION. Podestà began his political career in 1972, volunteering for George McGovern's unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Congressional and Lobbyist Career

Over the years, Podestà held various positions on Capitol Hill, including counsel to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (1995-1996), chief counsel of the Senate Committee on Agriculture (1987-1988), and general counsel for the minority on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; Regulatory Reform; and as staff counsel to the majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee (1979-1981). In 1988, Podestà and his brother Tony co-founded the Washington, D.C. lobbying firm Podesta Associates, Inc. (later Podesta Group), which has close ties to the Democratic Party and the Obama administration and has represented major corporations such as Wal-Mart, BP, and Lockheed Martin.

Clinton Presidential Years

Podestà served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1998. Previously, he had been Assistant to the President for Management and Administration (1993-1995) and Senior Advisor for Policy on government information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy (1993-1995). In 1998, he became Clinton's Chief of Staff for his second term, a position he held until Clinton left office in January 2001. Podestà championed Executive Order 12958, which led to the declassification effort of millions of pages of U.S. diplomatic and national security history.

Later Years

In 2003, Podestà founded the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C. He served as its president and CEO until 2011, when he was succeeded by former CAP COO Neera Tanden. Podestà has taught as an adjunct professor at his alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, for many years, instructing students on congressional investigations, law and technology, legislation, copyright, and public interest law. From 2002 to 2014, he served on the board of directors of the Constitution Project, a non-profit organization that seeks bipartisan consensus on critical constitutional and legal issues. In 2008, he authored the book "The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country." In 2009, Podestà accompanied former President Bill Clinton to North Korea to negotiate the release of two American journalists who had been arrested on espionage charges. He is seen in numerous widely distributed photographs of Clinton's meeting with Kim Jong-il.

Advocacy for Government Transparency and UFO Disclosure

Podestà is an advocate against excessive government classification, and in a 2004 speech at Princeton University, he decried what he called the "excessive entitlement of the government to secrecy" and "the bloated bureaucracy of secrecy" in the United States. Podestà credits Executive Order 12958, "which established tough standards for classifying documents and led to an unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages of our nation's diplomatic and national security history," as "perhaps the Clinton administration's single greatest achievement." Over 800 million pages of intelligence documents were declassified under the program. Podestà has been characterized as "a long-time proponent of government disclosure about UFOs." He supports petitions to the government arguing that UFOs are alien spacecraft and requesting the release of related documents. In 2002, at a press conference organized by the Coalition for Freedom of Information (a group advocating for the release of government UFO documents), Podestà stated, "It is time for the government to declassify documents more than 25 years old and give scientists the data they need to help determine the true nature of this phenomenon." Podestà wrote the foreword to Leslie Kean's book "UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record," which documents numerous cases of UFO encounters by qualified personnel.

Business Interests and International Engagement

On December 14, 2017, Podestà visited Patras, Peloponnese, Greece, at the invitation of prominent Greek lobbyist Chris Spirou, to speak at an international business conference in Western Greece. Podestà's visit and speech in Patras, titled "The EU and the US under the conditions of business globalization. Challenges and prospects for the region of Western Greece," was widely seen as generating significant prospects for potential U.S. investment in the Western Greece region in the near future. The event was also attended by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

WikiLeaks Release and Allegations

On October 7, 2016, WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of emails reportedly taken from John Podestà's personal Gmail account. These emails have been used to, among other things, accuse Podestà of involvement in a secret pedophile ring. WikiLeaks also released information about Podestà's allegedly incomplete disclosure to financial regulators of his work on the board of a small energy company that received a multimillion dollar loan from the Russian state-owned corporation Rosnano.

Personal Life

Podestà is married to Mary C. Podestà, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, with whom he has three children.