OAN’s Daniel Baldwin
11:20 AM – Friday, December 28, 2023
One of key architects of the Trump-Russia hoax has been sentenced to 50 months in prison along with a $40,000 fine. Charles McGonigal, was a former FBI counterintelligence chief in New York specializing in Russian intelligence. Additionally, McGonigal was accused of working with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, violating sanctions and money laundering for the Putin associate.
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McGonigal had been arrested back in January and slapped with two indictments, one in New York and one in Washington D.C. McGonigal pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to launder money and violate the international emergency economic powers act in August, and he accepted more than $17,000 to help the Russian oligarch dig up dirt on a business competitor.
Before this – McGonigal was neck-deep in the Trump-Russia hoax, fueling conspiracies that Trump was a Russian agent. In fact, information that McGonigal reported helped kickstart operation crossfire hurricane.
In September 2020, FBI deputy assistant director Jonathan Moffa revealed to the Senate Judiciary Committee that McGonigal had sent him an email in July 2016 regarding campaign advisor to Trump George Papadopoulos that “contained essentially that reporting, which then served as the basis for the opening of the case.”
One America News’ chief investigative reporter Chanel Rion explained why this specific situation revealed much about the dilapidated state of the FBI.
“The FBI needs to apologize to Trump,” Rion said on Weekly Briefing. “The FBI needs to apologize to the American People. The FBI needs to apologize for not chasing down enemy number one. But for becoming enemy number one.”
Former President Donald Trump blasted McGonigal after the former FBI agent’s arrest in January.
“The FBI guy after me for the Russia Russia Russia hoax long before my election as president was just arrested for taking money from Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump said. “May he rot in hell.”
McGonigal will face a second sentencing in February, as he pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington. He was charged with hiding $225,000 in payments he received from a former Albanian intel officer.
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