FBI Agent Who Helped Launch Russia Collusion Hoax Sentenced With Additional Prison Time

On Friday,  former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal was sentenced to an additional 28 months in prison over failure to disclose a $225K payment he received from an Albanian businessman linked to Albania’s government.

Charles McGonigal was one of the key figures in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

In 2016, Charles McGonigal was Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office.

He was the one who fired off an email that started “Crossfire Hurricane” — the FBI investigation that led to the appointment of Robert Mueller and the expensive, lengthy probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Check it out:

A former FBI special agent who once led a counterintelligence division was sentenced to more than two years in prison in connection with lying to investigators about receiving thousands of dollars from a businessperson tied to the Albanian government. https://t.co/puLX8LvRHh

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 17, 2024

United States v. McGonigal
(DC Case)

Charles McGonigal, the former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division in the New York Field Office, has been sentenced to 28 months incarceration for concealing payments from an Albanian intelligence official.

The… https://t.co/WXZEcX1hYZ

— Just Human (@realjusthuman) February 16, 2024

In January 2023, McGonigal was arrested for conspiring with Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, to help them get around sanctions by the US government.

🔵🇺🇸 REPOST: FBI official who helped investigate Trump for the fake “Russia Russia Russia” collusion hoax has been sentenced to four years in prison for…wait for it…COLLUDING WITH RUSSIA. 🤡

Cannot make this stuff up❗️ pic.twitter.com/hPtZi4J7h3

— Jayne Potvin (@Fisherlady111) February 16, 2024

He plead guilty in August on charges of violating the violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and engaging in money laundering.

McGonigal was originally sentenced in December to 50 months in prison.

The New York Post had the following to say on this back in December:

Former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal started tearing up Thursday as he was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions.

McGonigal, 55, was ordered to surrender by Feb. 26, 2024, made to serve three years of supervised release following his time behind bars, and was fined $40,000.

After he exited the courthouse, McGonigal told onlookers, “Happy holidays.”

McGonigal, who helmed the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, pleaded guilty to the charge back in August.

“[McGonigal] well knew his actions violated those sanctions,” Manhattan federal judge Jennifer Rearden said while handing down the sentencing.

“In the face of that knowledge, Mr. McGonigal forged ahead,” she added, calling it a “great risk to national security.”

Ironically, prior to getting ensnared in his own Russia-related misconduct, McGonigal helped the bureau investigate former President Donald Trump’s purported ties to Moscow.

The disgraced former FBI bigwig copped to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carried a maximum of five years in prison.

McGonigal’s sentence has now been extended by 28-months, so he is set to serve more than six years in federal prison.

AP reported:

A former high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced on Friday to more than two years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a businessman with ties to the Albanian government — and trying to conceal their corrupt financial relationship.

Charles McGonigal, 55, supervised national security operations for the FBI in New York for nearly two years before his retirement in 2018. He appeared to advance Albanian interests in the U.S. after he asked for and received roughly $225,000 in 2017 from a man who had worked for an Albanian intelligence agency, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced McGonigal to two years and four months in prison for the case brought in Washington, D.C. She ordered him to serve it consecutively to a 50-month prison sentence for a separate case in New York, so he is facing a total of six years and six months when he reports to prison next month.

The Washington Post added some more details on the sentencing:

The FBI’s former top spy hunter in New York was sentenced in Washington on Friday to 28 months in prison for concealing at least $225,000 in payments he received from a former Albanian intelligence official while working for the bureau.

Charles McGonigal will serve his punishment on top of a 50-month prison term he received separately in New York last year for illegally conspiring with a Russian oligarch who wanted to be removed from a U.S. sanctions list.

McGonigal, 55, is one of the highest-ranking FBI agents ever convicted of criminal charges, and federal prosecutors on Friday urged U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to stack the sentences after the 22-year veteran of the bureau admitted to committing the very violations he was sworn to investigate.

“This is a very serious offense,” Kollar-Kotelly said, one that tarnished the integrity of the FBI, risked the credibility of all the cases he handled and abused the public trust at a time government institutions are under fire. “The motive could only be greed,” she said, as McGonigal lost his “moral compass.”

“I don’t understand frankly why you would simply throw away your career at that moment for the money,” the judge said, noting he would have maintained a “handsome” private income after an “illustrious” career.

McGonigal was special agent in charge of the counterintelligence division of the FBI’s New York City office from 2016 to his retirement in September 2018. He admitted that he hid from the FBI his receipt of payments from Albanian American Agron Neza, a former Albanian intelligence officer, and his meetings with foreign officials including Albanian prime minister Edi Rama. McGonigal said he sought to avoid questions about a conflict of interest between his official duties and private plans to build his post-retirement business opportunities in that country.