FBI insider’s China connections spark new concerns over Biden-linked leaks

By Jerry Dunleavy | Just The News

The former FBI official who leaked details of a criminal investigation to a Chinese company with a relationship with a Hunter Biden client was over the years involved in a wide range of investigations, from Wikileaks to Crossfire Hurricane. It remains to be seen which ones may have been tainted.

The since-convicted FBI counterintelligence leader, who leaked information about a criminal investigation into a Chinese company linked to Hunter Biden’s business efforts, had previously played what he claimed in his defense to have had supervisory roles in a wide range of investigations.

Charles McGonigal, now known to have leaked sensitive information to China-linked targets of an FBI investigation he was helping oversee, played a role in a host of other FBI investigations, including a Chinese mole hunt, a defensive briefing given to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, the baseless Trump-Russia collusion investigation, a failed prosecution of Huawei executives, Chelsea Manning’s leaks to WikiLeaks, the explosion of TWA Flight 800, Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks, and more.

McGonigal, who served as the section chief of the Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section at FBI Headquarters for much of 2016, was promoted by since-fired FBI Director James Comey to be the special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division at its New York field office in October 2016.

McGonigal was sentenced in December 2023 for money laundering related to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and in February 2024 for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from an Albanian government official. The DOJ described Deripaska as “a Russian tycoon who acts as Vladimir Putin’s agent.”

Seth DuCharme, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York during the first Trump administration who served as a defense lawyer for McGonigal, touted McGonigal’s lengthy résumé in sentencing memos in 2023 and 2024. “To weigh the seriousness of this offense against Mr. McGonigal’s personal background, including his extensive work as a national security professional, the Court must carefully consider the totality of his circumstances,” DuCharme argued. He also said, “Mr. McGonigal’s service to the United States has been truly extraordinary, and often at grave personal risk.”

Neither sentencing memo made any mention of McGonigal’s role in the hunt for a mole who was helping the Chinese nor of his connections to the flawed Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Ironically, the Crossfire Hurricane hoax painted Donald Trump as a Russian asset.

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