OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:00 PM – Friday, September 22, 2023
Former Senior FBI Agent Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty to a charge that he had concealed payments from a foreign official.
On Friday, the 55-year-old admitted to a federal court that he took a $225,000 payment from an Albanian intelligence official while he was supervising counterintelligence at the FBI’s New York field office.
According to prosecutors, the foreign official had later served as an FBI source in a criminal investigation that involved foreign political lobbying that McGonigal supervised.
They also reportedly alleged that the agent misled the FBI by not properly disclosing his overseas travels and contacts with foreign nationals while he was still employed by the bureau.
McGonial was facing a nine-count indictment with charges that also included trips to Europe he took with the former Albanian intelligence officer in 2017 and 2018.
The 55-year-old stated that the trips were intended to lay the framework for a security consulting business the two planned to launch once McGonigal departed the FBI.
The former agent said in a brief statement in court on Friday that he did not report the trips or the payments, which he described as loans, because he could not participate in personal business development while working for the FBI.
McGonigal had also previously pleaded guilty last month to separate charges in New York related to his work for a Russian oligarch in which he is awaiting trial for.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to ask the judge to dismiss the eight other counts included in the original indictment.
He pleaded guilty to a single count of concealment of material facts and faces up to five years in prison with a maximum fine of $250,000.
The judge scheduled a sentencing hearing for February 16, 2024.
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