(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – In what many believe is further vindication of the conclusion that the Democrats’ “Trump-Russia collusion” plot was an all-out hoax, a former FBI agent who worked on the probe has been criminally convicted of conspiring with a powerful oligarch from Putin’s Russia.
Charles McGonigal, part of the FBI’s “Trump-Russia collusion” investigation, confessed to conspiring with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire close to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
On Tuesday, McGonigal pleaded guilty to “conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiring to commit money laundering” as he tried to remove Deripaska from the list of individuals sanctioned by the United States due to Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine.
Deripaska, whose present net worth is estimated at $2.5 billion, was first sanctioned by the US in 2018. Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 in a “partial” military aggression, eight years before its current full-fledged invasion that began in February 2022.
In September 2022, the US Justice Department indicted Deripaska in absentia on several charges, including an attempt to smuggle his pregnant girlfriend to the US so their second child would be born an American citizen.
Deripaska’s now-exposed US ally, former FBI agent Charles McGonigal, will be sentenced on December 14, the DOJ announced, as cited by The Washington Times.
“Charles McGonigal broke his oath to defend the Constitution and turned his back on his duty to protect the American people in favor of his own greed by working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch,” declared Suzanne Turner, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, in a statement.
The Times points out that McGonigal, a former top-ranking counterintelligence officer based in New York, is the fourth high-ranking FBI figure involved in the “Trump-Russia collusion” probe to end up with criminal charges or under investigation.
The former FBI agent faces separate indictments from prosecutors in New York and Washington, DC, accusing him of taking money illegally from Oleg Deripaska. However, he has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Washington.
In 2021, McGonigal and NY-based court interpreter Sergey Shestakov agreed to take money from Deripaska to investigate one of his rivals. They used shell companies and forged signatures to cover the dirty Russian money.
According to the prosecutors, from August-November 2021, McGonigal took an initial payment of $51,000 from Deripaska and then $41,790 monthly for three months.
An ex-FBI official who was part of the bureau's Trump-Russian collusion probe into former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with a Russian oligarch, the Justice Department announced. https://t.co/Sklpoybtz6
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) August 15, 2023
