Former top FBI official Charles McGonigal, who was indicted in New York last month on charges of conspiring to violate US sanctions while working with Russian oligarchs, pleaded guilty on Friday to accepting secret payments from a former foreign intelligence agent.
McGonigal, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of concealing a material fact for taking $225,000 in cash from a former Albanian employee while working for the bureau.
He was initially charged with nine counts, including falsifying records, concealing material facts and making false statements, court filings show, potentially facing up to 55 years in prison.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly accepted the plea and set a sentencing hearing for February 16, 2024. McGonigal faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The former FBI special agent in charge served as the head of counterintelligence in New York from 2016 to 2018 — and helped launch an investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia to obtain “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton before the 2016 election.
Former FBI special agent in charge Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty in Washington, DC, to one count of receiving secret payments from a former foreign intelligence agent.REUTERS
McGonigal was last month charged in New York with conspiring to violate US sanctions while working with Russian oligarchs.Getty Images
McGonigal allegedly took a six-figure payment from a man identified in European media as Agron Neza, and did favors in exchange such as meeting the country’s prime minister, Edi Rama.
G-man began the lucrative arrangement in August 2017 — and it continued after his retirement from the FBI in September 2018, according to his January indictment.
The disgraced agent also asked the FBI to open a criminal investigation into foreign political lobbying that would benefit Rama – and used the former Albanian intelligence officer as a confidential human resource, prosecutors said.
McGonigal also allegedly asked the FBI’s liaison to the United Nations to broker a meeting between then-US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and the founder of a Bosnian pharmaceutical company.
The former FBI special agent in charge served as the head of counterintelligence in New York from 2016 to 2018 — and previously investigated the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia before the 2016 election.AP
His Albanian associate was ready to receive $500,000 from the pharmaceutical company if the meeting took place, the indictment alleges.
An attorney for McGonigal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A representative for DC US Attorney Matthew Graves declined to comment.
The disgraced FBI agent, who served 22 years at the bureau, pleaded guilty last month to just one count of conspiring to launder money and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in his off-the-books work for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire and aluminum magnate.
The disgraced FBI agent, who served 22 years at the bureau, pleaded guilty last month to just one count of conspiracy to launder money and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.Gregory P. Mango
“I understand the consequences of my actions, and I am deeply sorry,” McGonigal said with evident regret in Manhattan federal court. “My actions were never intended to hurt the United States, the FBI or my family and friends.”
He claims he pocketed $17,500 to help Deripaska get dirt on a rival Russian oligarch – and then tried to get him off the US sanctions list.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) threatened to subpoena the FBI on Tuesday for the file on McGonigal, calling his recent plea deal with the Justice Department a slap on the wrist.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) threatened to subpoena the FBI on Tuesday for the file on McGonigal, calling his recent plea deal with the Justice Department a slap on the wrist.REUTERS
“Both McGonigal’s serious misconduct as a high-level senior FBI official, and the possibility that McGonigal received generous plea offers from the Justice Department in both cases, raise serious concerns that the FBI and the Department may be trying to conceal the true extent of McGonigal’s misconduct to avoid further reputational harm to the Bureau,” Jordan wrote in a Sept. 19 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“If you refuse to voluntarily submit the requested documents and information, the Committee may be forced to consider the use of compulsory process,” Jordan added.
McGonigal faces up to five years in prison for the crime. US District Judge Jennifer Readden has set a sentencing hearing for December 14 for the New York case.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
