THE MAKING — AND UNMAKING — OF A POWER AFTER MORE THAN A MARRIAGE YEAR OF PREPARATIONS, THE EXHIBIT WAS ALL SET.

The Australian Embassy in DC had readied its donations, handing out cash to liberal politi- gallery for the nine-week show, and artist Patricia cians including Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid Piccinini had selected the works she wanted dis- and using their clout to help the world’s biggest played. But two weeks before it was to open, there companies—Walmart, BP, Toyota—advance was a problem. The Washington couple who owned their interests in Washington. Heather went on the art was bickering over it. to found one of the US’s largest female-owned “If we are no longer able to borrow the Piccinini government-relations firms and become, as exhibition for the upcoming show, then we need the Washington Post put it, “an It Girl in a new to know now,” Australia’s cultural attaché said in generation of young, highly connected, built-for- a frantic e-mail to a manager of the collection this the-Obama-era lobbyists.” past February. “Grateful for your urgent advice.” While other liberals winced at the thought of The husband and wife ultimately couldn’t trading high-minded ideals to shill for corporate agree to go ahead, according to court records, and America, the Podestas projected pride in their pro- the embassy had to cancel the show, making it fession. They strutted through smoke-filled rooms unlikely collateral damage in the divorce of one of with flash and flair—Tony in red Prada shoes, the country’s most powerful Democratic couples: Heather in bright, eye-catching dresses—like pub- superlobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta. lic ambassadors for their often vilified industry. When they married 11 years ago, the Podestas The partnership produced million-dollar were the talk of K Street. At 59, Tony was the returns, but never children. Instead, Tony and brother of a former chief of staff to President Clin- Heather Podesta had art. During their 11 years Superlobbyists TONY AND HEATHER PODESTA brought ton, , and a legendary political fixer of marriage, the couple bought more than 700 who had turned a two-man lobbying shop into an contemporary artworks—sculptures by Louise glamour and exceptional pride to Washington’s influence industry. industrial complex of influence peddling. Twenty- Bourgeois, photographs by Katy Grannan, Shep­ard Then they LANDED IN DIVORCE COURT, trying to outlobby each other six years his junior, Heather was a 33-year-old Fairey’s “Hope” portrait of —and congressional staffer, an up-and-comer with a law built a collection of international acclaim. Then for control of their powerful brand and all its assets. degree from the University of Virginia. Heather the relationship collapsed. And the Podestas found was his second marriage; he was her third. themselves in divorce court, fighting over one of Together, they blasted to the top of the Demo- the most lucrative brand names in DC politics, and

BY LUKE MULLINS PHOTOGRAPH BY MAX HIRSHFELD PETER CROWTHER BY PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION cratic food chain in a swirl of air kisses and PAC all the spoils that came with it.

62 WASHINGTONIAN ★ AUGUST 2014 AUGUST 2014 ★ WASHINGTONIAN 63 rt was the spark. Tony has always insisted he never asks his brother which events were worth going to, according to a On their first date in 2001, Tony Podesta for political favors, by 2001, the year Heather person familiar with their schedules, and arrived brought Heather Miller­ to his home to pick entered the picture, the was gen- in colorful (un-Washington) outfits meant to spark up his car before they headed to the opera. erating more than $7 million in annual lobbying conversations. (Heather once told the Post that she According to the Post, he walked past one of revenue from clients like Philip Morris, Lockheed learned this trick by reading a networking manual.) Ahis sculptures and said, “I don’t know why it is, but Martin, and Citigroup, according to the Center for The couple spent $3.9 million to buy a home I have artworks where the women have no heads.” Responsive Politics. on Belmont Road in DC’s Kalorama and millions The following day, Heather wrote Tony a thank- Heather, meanwhile, talked up her man while more to convert it into an art-filled Taj Mahal you note and signed it, “Woman with a head.” working as an attorney for Congressman Robert for their extravagant political fundraisers. They At the time they met, Heather was still griev- Matsui, a California Democrat. “She was very quick weren’t afraid to display some of their more ing the collapse of her second marriage. A friend to drop names, like ‘Oh, Tony and I saw Linda and provocative pieces; a nearly eight-foot-wide Sam had thought she could use a blind date and set Tom last night,’ ” says a former Matsui staffer Taylor-Wood photograph of a naked man, for the college professor’s daughter up with the GILLIAN WEARING who worked alongside her. “Of course, everybody instance, hung in the living room. “Self Portrait at 17 flamboyant lobbyist. knew it was Linda and Tom Daschle,” then the When they weren’t in Washington, Heather and Years Old,” 2003 Over the previous 33 years, Tony had worked for Democratic Senate minority leader and his wife. Tony jetted off to their home in Australia or their This and other six presidential candidates, from Eugene McCar- artworks shown were in Although capable and bright, Heather caused fric- apartment in Venice, sometimes meeting up with thy to Bill Clinton. When Ted Kennedy’s campaign the Heather and Tony tion in Matsui’s office for appearing to want special political heavyweights like Janet Napolitano and for the White House stalled in 1980, cash dried up Podesta Collection. treatment. Once, her supervisor let her take several Ted Kennedy, according to the Post. and staffers were partly paid in donated art. Tony days off in the middle of a congressional session, As Heather’s attorney would later put it, “they walked away from the campaign with his arms full when the staff’s presence is most critical, because strategically cultivated their public image and of pieces by Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschen- she insisted she had an important family event to worked to build the ‘Heather and Tony Podesta’ berg. His interest in art collecting grew from there. attend in the States, according to the former col- brand for the success of their shared enterprises.” In 1987, Tony and his brother, John, launched league. Her supervisor soon learned that she’d been Their clients weren’t always the kind you’d their lobbying firm, known today as the Podesta­ WITH HER, spotted at Dulles Airport waiting to board a flight to advertise. Tony, for example, has represented the Group, in the basement of a Capitol Hill rowhouse. HE WAS A Italy, where Podesta owned a vacation home. regime of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, Tony scrambled to turn almost two decades of “It was very clear that she felt that she should now on trial for his role in the killing of more than Democratic contacts into clients and revenue. COMPLETE be treated somewhat differently given who she 800 demonstrators during Egypt’s 2011 revolution. “Sometimes he had two phones going at once,” FREAKING was dating,” the former colleague says. (Through But there was never a trace of shame with the says John Raffetto, an early employee. “ a spokesman, Heather Podesta declined to com- PHOTOGRAPH OF “SELF PORTRAIT AT 17 YEARS OLD” COURTESY OF MAUREEN PALEY, LONDON; TONY AND JOHN PODESTA BY TONYWASHINGTON POWELL/ LIFE Podestas. At the Democrats’ 2008 convention in

At night, Tony hosted fundraisers for leading TEDDY BEAR. ment for this story.) Denver, after Barack Obama assailed lobbyists as Democrats at his home. Guests studied his art as IT WAS After dating for two years, Tony and Heather unduly influential, Heather and Tony wore lapel they forked over campaign checks while Podesta’s ALWAYS were married in April 2003, and Washington’s patches featuring a scarlet letter “L.” mother, who had moved to Washington after her Democratic elite—House minority leader Nancy The following year, Heather organized a fund- husband’s death, cooked her famous pesto sauce. BETTER Pelosi, Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, New Mex- raiser for California senator Dianne Feinstein and These events—known as the Pesto PAC—could WHEN SHE ico governor Bill Richardson—came out for the sent invitations promising “the Select Committee raise $50,000 in a single evening, allowing Tony to “ head-turning occasion. Heather recited her vows on Intelligence for the first course followed by strengthen his ties to the Democratic luminaries WAS AROUND in a red silk dress, and popular local chefs Roberto your choice of Appropriations, Judiciary, or Rules he feted. BECAUSE HE Donna and Kaz Okochi catered the reception. needed liberal allies on K Street—and nobody was committees,” according to Roll Call. Feinstein, who SHEPARD FAIREY The family brand got the White House’s endorse- For a few months afterward, Heather continued better positioned than the Podestas. sits on each of these committees, heard about the WASN’T SUCH “Hope,” 2008 ment in 1993, when John Podesta left the firm to to use her maiden name, as she had throughout In 2007, Heather decided to launch her own invitation and canceled the event. join Clinton’s staff, and with that, Podesta power A JERK TO her two earlier marriages. Tony warned her that lobbying shop. She considered naming it Butterfly- Ironically, the Obama administration’s ambitious stretched from K Street to the West Wing. While DEAL WITH. if she took his name, people in Washington would Sting Strategies, according to the Wall Street Jour- first-term legislative agenda on health care, climate identify her as either an ally or an enemy before nal. Another option was Velvet Steel Strategies. change, and financial reform created a bonanza for even meeting her, National Journal reported. “That Then the perfect name revealed itself: Heather the very lobbyists the President wanted to freeze is so much cooler than being Heather Miller,” she Podesta + Partners. out. Between 2007 and 2012, revenue at Tony’s firm said. “I’m ready to be a Podesta.” In its first year, according to the Center for more than doubled, going from $11 million to $27.4 Responsive Politics, the firm took in $2.6 million million, according to the Center for Responsive he union was forged as Washing- from blue-chip clients like US Steel, HealthSouth Politics; at Heather Podesta + Partners, revenue tri- ton’s balance of power began to tilt in the Corp., and Boeing. “She’s never off duty on behalf pled to $7.9 million, a staggering increase from the Podestas’ favor. The Republican Revolution of her clients,” says Eric Rosen, who was Heather’s $55,000 she was making the year she left the Hill. Tony Podesta • of 1994 had precipitated nearly a dozen second employee and still works at the firm. The couple spent their cash on art-buying bing- (left) and his •The Podestas brother, John, ran straight years of conservative control of The Podesta businesses were poised for even bought the poster es across the US and Europe, eventually amassing a lobbying firm TCongress, and throughout this time corporate more growth in 2008 when Obama was elected (above) that came somewhere between 700 and 1,300 pieces of sculp- together beginning America had relied primarily on GOP lobbyists to President and Tony’s brother, John, stepped up to define Barack ture, paintings, photography, and video art that in the 1980s, before press their case in Washington. But the Iraq War to cochair the administration’s transition team. Obama’s presidential they loaned to museums including the National John went on to campaign and White House jobs helped turn Americans against Republicans; in Heather and Tony emerged as one of Washington’s donated it to the Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and for Bill Clinton and 2006, voters installed Democratic majorities in the most conspicuous power couples. Each week, they National Portrait the Guggenheim. They called it the Heather and PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, GIFT OF THE HEATHER AND TONY PODESTA PODESTA AND TONY GIFT OF THE HEATHER GALLERY, PORTRAIT OF NATIONAL COURTESY PHOTOGRAPH Barack Obama. House and the Senate. Suddenly, private industry FAIREY/OBEYGIANT.COM SHEPARD K. PODESTA, IN HONOR OF MARY COLLECTION sifted through dozens of invitations to determine Gallery in 2009. Tony Podesta Collection.

64 WASHINGTONIAN ★ AUGUST 2014 AUGUST 2014 ★ WASHINGTONIAN 65 espite their hectic schedules, inventory of their belongings. But once inside, other works to the National Museum of Women in the Podestas appeared to be genuinely in Heather went upstairs, “only to leave the videog- the Arts—where Heather is a trustee. love—so affectionate with each other that rapher downstairs, lock herself in Mr. Podesta’s This past winter, Tony wanted to give some art to employees sometimes felt uncomfort- bedroom, and rummage through the safe and his the Phillips Collection, but the museum refused to able around them. “He has a pretty short suitcase,” Tony’s lawyer alleged in a court filing. accept it after receiving a letter from Heather’s attor- Dfuse—he is very difficult to work for,” says a former The day the couple filed for divorce this past ney warning that he didn’t have permission to do so. senior Podesta Group staffer. “He’s a yeller, he’s April—Tony first, then Heather—details were Tony donated the art to the National Gallery instead. a screamer—nasty e-mails 24-7. But with her, he leaked to the Post’s Reliable Source gossip col- was a complete freaking teddy bear. It was always umn, where readers learned of Tony’s claim that he case basically boiled down to better when she was around because he wasn’t Heather had changed the locks on the Venice the Podesta brand—who had built it and such a jerk to deal with.” apartment and, later, Heather’s allegation that who owned it. Tony’s first marriage had ended bitterly, with Tony dated other people while she was with the Tony insisted that he was responsible for his ex-wife claiming in court that when they split Hollywood director (which Tony’s lawyer denies). Heather’s success, claiming that he taught he undervalued his income by roughly half and, Because the Podestas didn’t have a prenuptial Ther the business and introduced her to key con- by doing so, reduced his child-support tab for agreement, they turned to the go-to lawyers of tacts. “Ms. Podesta’s career has risen meteorically their three adopted children. After 4½ years of Washington’s divorce bar in the fight over their loot. since the parties’ marriage,” he argued in court litigation, Tony agreed to pay $265,000 to settle Tony hired Sanford Ain of Ain & Bank, who had papers. She “used Mr. Podesta’s name and reputa- all financial obligations to his kids, who were ad- helped billionaire Steven Rales of the Danaher Cor- tion to advance her own business and interests.” opted by his ex-wife’s new husband. (“He’s a great poration unwind his marriage and BET cofounder Heather insisted that she’d taken Tony’s name “as ANILA RUBIKU guy; I have nothing against him,” says one of those Sheila Johnson hers. Heather enlisted three firms: “Mastering Freedom a loving commitment” to him and that the couple children, now 31.) Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell; Pasternak & Fidis; #4,” 2006 had acted as a team, sharing ideas and connections When Heather was around, Tony went from be- and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. that benefited both firms. Tony had once told her ing an irascible boss to an entirely different person, They agreed that a judge needed to divvy up the “she was one of the top three rainmakers for The and his affectionate behavior extended to business. assets they had acquired together—jewelry, real Podesta Group (even though she also had her own If a conflict of interest with an existing client pre- estate, and Heather’s company (because she had firm and clients),” one of her court filings said. vented him from taking on a new client, he often started it after they married). But Heather also “Together,” as Heather’s attorney put it, “the referred the customer to Heather, according to a wanted a share of the value of Tony’s lobbying shop parties experienced growth in their businesses current and a former senior staffer at Tony’s firm. (which he said was off-limits because he’d started and in their income and assets that neither had it before they married and which she said was fair experienced individually.” game because he’d owned one firm before they wed Heather and Tony racked up 109 hours with a but started his current firm afterward). mediator—nicknamed “the closer” for her ability Then there was the art. Of everything they to engineer out-of-court settlements—but the eather once told a POST Style owned, it was their most valuable asset, amounting $60,000 process wasn’t enough to end their war. writer, “It takes a Podesta to take out a Po- to nearly 50 percent of their estate, according to So in early June, they made their first appearance desta.” She was talking about the way she Heather’s court filings. She wanted half of it. Tony in court. During the hearing, their lawyers made sometimes out-competed her husband for wanted a share equal to what he’d put in, which a point of staking their claims to the famous last clients. But since the couple’s breakup, the could give him more than half. name: Tony’s lawyer would refer to Heather only Hline has taken on new meaning. Local museums found themselves caught in as “Ms. Miller Podesta.” Heather’s lawyer, mean- The romance had flamed out by early last year, the middle. After the couple separated, Heather while, called his client “Ms. Podesta.” when Heather left their Kalorama house for good ordered Tony not to unload their holdings. Accord- By then, as they say on K Street, the Podestas and asked Tony for cash to put toward a $3.8-mil- ing to court filings, Tony responded by giving three had lost control of the narrative.

PHOTOGRAPH OF TONY AND HEATHER PODESTA BY KYLE SAMPERTON/ WASHINGTON LIFE ANN HAMILTON lion property on nearby Wyoming Avenue, accord- SERIES #3, OBJECT “BODY OF ANILA RUBIKU; FREEDOM #4” COURTESY “MASTERING LIZ LYNCH; BY PODESTA OF HEATHER PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION PODESTA AND TONY GIFT OF THE HEATHER OF ART, GALLERY OF NATIONAL SHOE” COURTESY photographs to the National Gallery of Art and 20 So not even a week later, and staring down the “Body Object Series ing to his court filings. Tony, still hoping to patch possibility of an embarrassing public trial, Tony and #3, Shoe,” 1984 things up, paid half of the down payment. Heather decided to do what was best for business: But after she left, he heard rumors that Heather They reached a private settlement and immediately had a new boyfriend: Stephen Kessler, a Los An- launched the kind of charm offensive they’d nor- (A person close to Heather says she referred even geles filmmaker whose director credits include mally get to bill for, issuing statements of mutual more business to Tony.) •The Podestas owned the 1997 slapstick comedy Vegas Vacation, star- admiration and respect, pledging to loan out their Tony’s lobbyists also provided Heather with homes in Italy, Australia, ring Chevy Chase. Tony saw Heather and Kessler art together, and professing to be dear friends. intelligence that helped her run her firm, the cur- and the District. They pictured together in magazines and learned they’d “In politics, the art world and in life, there is only paid $3.9 million for rent and former staffers say. The ex-employee their house in DC’s been spotted together at Washington events, ac- one Tony Podesta,” she wrote. “It was a great joy says he briefed Heather several times a year about Kalorama (above) and cording to someone close to Tony. “He felt hurt,” •After Obama to share my life with Heather Podesta,” he wrote. developments on Capitol Hill, and the current spent millions more on this person says. “He still cared about her.” assailed lobbyists Tony keeps his lobbying firm and Heather hers. staffer says Heather needed help understanding renovations. The couple One day, Heather returned to the Belmont Road in his 2008 campaign, Nobody needs new business cards—they both get the administration’s approach to regulation. Pro- was known for their home and her house key wouldn’t work. Tony had Heather had defiant, the name. W colorful, conversation- Scarlet Letter– viding such assistance to a competing lobbyist is starting fashion changed the locks. inspired L’s made unheard of on K Street. But “she was Tony’s wife,” statements, such as From there, the spat got petty. Tony later agreed for the Democratic Senior writer Luke Mullins can be reached at the former staffer says, “so you kind of had to.” Tony’s red Prada shoes. to let her return to the house for a videotaped convention. [email protected].

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