It’s interesting how the news lately has become its own version of comedy; sometimes, I must double-check that what I’m reading isn’t a Babylon Bee satire headline. I’d say I’ve got a 50/50 shot most days. This week’s most incredible headline has so many ‘funny if it wasn’t true’ aspects that I’m not sure I’ll do all of it justice in this one article, but I’ll give it my best shot.
My favorite evening news show led last night with the breaking news that a former high-level FBI agent had been arrested for various reasons, including essentially working as an unclaimed foreign agent. That alone is pretty damning, but when you add that the individual in question was accepting payment covertly from a sanctioned Russian oligarch, that raises some eyebrows.
However, even my most beloved evening news anchor buried the real lede of the story; this now-disgraced retired FBI agent was none other than Charles McGonigal. Sound familiar? He should; he was one of the leading agents to spearhead the Trump-Russia probe witch hunt.
🚨 BREAKING: An FBI agent who investigated the Donald Trump Russia collusion has been arrested for colluding with Russia.
You can’t make this stuff up.
— Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) January 23, 2023
Naughty Boy
Retired FBI agent Charles McGonigal was indicted on five counts of violating and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering. That sounds pretty bad; let’s dive deeper, shall we? U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said of the charges:
“Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a Court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch.” So in layman’s terms, this alleged traitor and his compatriot Sergey worked for a Russian oligarch that the United States government had sanctioned, all while also “investigating” the alleged election interference and conspiracy that the Trump campaign was working with Russia to cheat the presidential election.
Mr. Williams went on to explain some of what McGonigal had done: “They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better.” Indeed, they did know better, and you cannot convince me otherwise
It’s Good To Be Dirty I find it interesting the parallels between federal agencies. It’s fascinating how military brass always seems to land big foreign contracts or high-paying defense contractor positions. We recently learned through the Twitter files how ex-CIA and FBI agents tended to land pretty legit gigs at the social media giant, no doubt making more money each year than I made in the first ten years of my military service combined. And now, this dirty agent who managed to make bank working as a foreign agent for Russia, essentially.
That’s right, McGonigal is accused of receiving and concealing a payment of $225,000 from ‘someone with business interests in Europe’ who worked for the Albanian foreign intelligence service. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves illustrates how gross this action is: “Covering up your contacts with foreign nationals and hiding your personal financial relationships is a gateway to corruption.” I’d say that’s a pretty big damn gateway. Wonder how much he got paid to go after President Trump and his staff on trumped-up charges of Russian collusion (see what I did there, I got puns for days).
Snake In The Grass It’s easy for regular everyday citizens to not fully understand the gravity of the actions of those charged with supporting and defending our Constitution because mainstream media glosses over them at best and hides, at worst, the truth. For example, Mr. Williams, in the indictment, explains what kind of a man McGonigal was working for while on the taxpayer payroll:
“Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska perform global malign influence on behalf of the Kremlin and are associated with acts of bribery, extortion, and violence.” Even though that sounds pretty tame, Oleg attempted to coordinate the killing of a fellow oligarch. Interestingly in 2021, McGonigal agreed to open an investigation on a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payment from Oleg.
Huh, I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. The point is this man was not some wayward agent having difficulty making ends meet or just some greedy bureaucrat looking to pad his bank account, if the charges are accurate. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Donald Alway explained: “Mr. McGonigal betrayed his solemn oath to the United States in exchange for personal gain and at the expense of our national security.” And while this is all awful, it’s still not the actual punchline.
If you still haven’t been paying attention throughout this article or the many others that lay out the blatant corruption within the federal government, particularly the disgraced FBI, I need you to focus really hard because this is important. Regardless of your feelings towards the former President, the truth is there is a concerted deep state effort in our country to manipulate and control the seats of power that are meant to be duly elected by its citizens.
While chief of cybercrimes, McGonigal was one of the first to learn of the allegations that George Papadopoulos, campaign adviser for then-candidate Trump, had bragged that Russians had ‘dirt’ on Election Denier, Crooked Hillary Clinton. McGonigal spearheaded the probe, which of course, came up with nothing because there was nothing.
Some might consider McGonigal’s indictment as a sign that the disgraced FBI is cleaning up house, holding its own accountable, and trying to change its public image to bolster American trust in the system. I’m not so sure.
Granted, McGonigal faces a maximum of 80 years in prison. Still, it’s possible he just outlived his utility for the disgraced FBI or got ahead of his skis. He was a convenient face for reimaging the disgraced FBI as a trusted source of justice. As former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said of the indictment:
