On Thursday, an ex-high-ranking FBI official who was implicated in the “Russiagate” investigation pertaining to former President Donald Trump was sentenced to 4 years in prison on foreign conspiracy charges.
The Wall Street Journal reports that in August, former FBI counterintelligence official Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty to assisting a Russian oligarch in exchange for covert payments.
A Manhattan court sentenced McGonigal to approximately four years in federal incarceration and imposed a $40,000 fine.
McGonigal was apprehended in January on suspicion of maintaining ties with sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, from whom he accepted remuneration in exchange for gathering open-source research pertaining to a competitor.
McGonigal is additionally accused of receiving payments totaling $225,000 from a former Albanian intelligence officer; he is scheduled to appear in court in February 2024 to answer this allegation.
McGonigal participated in the investigation into Crossfire Hurricane.
An investigation spanning 22 months and costing $32 million, dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane,” failed to substantiate any allegations that Trump conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 election in his favor.
Additionally, in 2015, McGonigal participated in a “classified defensive briefing” that was provided to the legal representatives of Hillary Clinton, an unsuccessful presidential candidate.
McGonigal was one of two FBI agents who thwarted a 1997 plan to explode the New York City subway system earlier in his career.
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