New Evidence Suggests FBI Agent Involved With Crossfire Hurricane Was Foreign Spy:
New Evidence Suggests FBI Agent Involved With Crossfire Hurricane Was Foreign Spy
he U.S. Department of Justice has reopened a case against a former top FBI counterspy. Charles McGonigal was Special Agent in Charge of Counterintelligence at the New York field office. He left the FBI in 2018, joined the massive Brookfield asset management fund as a vice president for global security, and was arrested and convicted in 2023.
But not for espionage. McGonigal quickly pled guilty to corruption-related crimes. He is serving six-and-a-half years in federal prison.
His prosecution and admission seem suspiciously tidy.
McGonigal was part of the FBI’s discredited CROSSFIRE HURRICANE “counterintelligence” operation led by his boss, Peter Strzok, against Donald Trump and his supporters in 2016.
As the former senior spy-hunter at the Bureau’s largest field office, McGonigal barely defended himself from charges relating to illegally accepting money from Albanian businessmen tied to that tiny country’s intelligence service, and for ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
He received a light sentence and $40,000 fine.
Something feels off. To the Russian or Chinese intelligence services, someone in McGonigal’s position would be a prime intelligence mark — the man in charge of tracking them.
Someone with his double life and excessive lifestyle makes a ripe target. It stretches credulity to think that Albanian intelligence got to McGonigal instead of Putin’s chekists.
On April 30, then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin renewed focus on McGonigal. In a letter to McGonigal’s attorney, Martin noted the former FBI man’s convictions of “falsifying records, making false statements, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”
Martin was vague about the new interest. “Information has come to the attention of my office which requires us to interview Mr. McGonigal,” he wrote, offering no specifics.
Apparently, DOJ is pursuing more than just minor details about Albanians or Russian oligarchs. --->READ MORE HERE
Ex-Russian Diplomat Pleads Guilty To Lying To FBI; Prosecutors Drop More Serious:
A former Russian diplomat who was charged with conspiring to evade sanctions by working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska pleaded guilty to a lesser count of lying to FBI agents.
Sergei Shestakov, a naturalized US citizen, had previously pleaded innocent to multiple charges related to work he did for Deripaska, a Kremlin-connected billionaire who's been under US sanctions since 2018.
His trial was set to begin on June 17 in Manhattan federal court.
On June 12, however, Shestakov told a judge he would plead guilty to a single count of lying to the FBI about his business dealings with Deripaska. In exchange, US prosecutors dropped other charges that included conspiring to commit money laundering.
Shestakov's defense lawyer, Rita Glavin, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking further comment. Shestakov could not be immediately located for comment.
Shestakov faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced in October.
The case against Shestakov drew less attention than the one against his alleged co-conspirator, Charles McGonigal. Until his retirement in 2018, McGonigal was one of the FBI's top counterintelligence agents investigating Russian spies and oligarchs.
McGonigal pleaded guilty to identical charges in 2023 and was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged that they did work for, and received payment from, Deripaska, who was seeking to soften the sanctions that the US Treasury hit him with in 2018. Deripaska had also sought help in digging up dirt on another Russian oligarch whom he was feuding with. --->READ MORE HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK
here, GETTR
here, and TWITTER
here.
No comments:
Post a Comment