A former FBI official, who is currently serving time for colluding with a Russian businessman on how to evade US sanctions, tipped off a Chinese energy firm that the Justice Department was investigating them, and they could be subject to arrest. That official was Charles McGonigal, who ironically was a key person in the counterintelligence probe regarding Russian collusion. Given how this guy went rogue, it’s not shocking this is now bubbling to the surface (via NY Post):
A disgraced former FBI official tipped off an employee of a Chinese group that did business with the Biden family about planned arrests related to a criminal investigation, compromising the integrity of the probe, according to a Justice Department watchdog.
Charles McGonigal, who helmed the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison in 2023 for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions — but his leaks about the bureau’s investigation into China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC), its top executive Patrick Ho and affiliated companies, were only made public Thursday by the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.
While overseeing the FBI probe into CEFC, McGonigal met with an Albanian official working for CEFC in June 2017 and told them “something to the effect of ‘we are looking into them’ or ‘we are going after them,’” the Albanian official, only identified as “Person B,” told the FBI in a 2022 proffer interview.
[…]
Person B traveled to Washington, DC, the day after his meeting with McGonigal and notified Ho about what he had gleaned from the FBI mole.
He warned Ho that he believed the bureau had plans to arrest him and potentially others involved with CEFC.
Person B later shared the leaked intel with CEFC China Chairman Ye Jianming, who warned another FBI target — identified as “Target 3” in the report — about the potential of imminent arrests.
In November 2017, Person B contacted McGonigal after receiving an invitation from Ho to attend a CEFC-sponsored event in New York.
Person B was not in the US at the time and appeared to be wrestling with the idea of attending the event, given the FBI probe into CEFC.
“Stay in Albania,” McGonigal advised Person B, according to the report.
What a mess. Yes, we have Kash Patel in there righting the ship, but there’s still a lot of rot at the FBI, evidenced by the burn bags the FBI director found, which contained troves of documents concerning the Russian collusion hoax. The annex to the Durham Report, which was an investigation conducted by Special Counsel John Durham into the origins of the Russian collusion hoax, was discovered in those bags.