So what was John Podesta's now-collapsed Russian green energy scheme really all about?

So much for collusion.

A Russian government-backed green energy company called Joule lost a lot of money as it collapsed in the wake of President Trump's "unexpected" election to president. It had been literally banking on a Hillary Clinton electoral victory, according to a new investigative report from the Daily Caller, expecting that a Clinton presidency's renewable energy focus would be just the thing for the company's fortunes. The plan flamed out when Trump was elected.

That made its ties with Clinton campaign manager John Podesta utterly worthless. Joule had brought Podesta onboard as a board member from 2010 to 2013 to influence its fortunes. Podesta got 75,000 shares for it, worth millions. The Daily Caller reported that Podesta joined the Obama administration in 2014 and then left the board, but he stayed in friendly and helpful contact with the company at least through 2015. There's no word on whether he kept his shares.

What kind of a company can stay afloat only if it has political connections? It would have to be a company that simply couldn't produce anything it could otherwise sell of value. That's what the Daily Caller seems to have found. Joule was known for its secrecy, leaving the biotech industry baffled, the Caller reported. It also tended to overpromise and under-deliver, making wild promises to investors on what it had in the works. The Daily Caller reported:

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