By Reed Cooper. Media: DC Enquirer.
Note: This article may contain commentary reflecting the author’s opinion.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced on Thursday they are launching an investigation into ex-FBI agent Charles McGonigal, a man who headed the counterintelligence division and was involved in the failed Trump-Russia probe, after he was arrested and charged over ties to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
“This is the FBI Thug who headed up the Fake Russia, Russia, Russia investigation against ME, at the same time he was being paid off by, get this, RUSSIA,” Forty-fifth President Donald Trump reacted, adding,“Does the FBI ever apologize to me and the American people for what they have put our Country through?”
“McGonigal allegedly took these actions after previously supervising investigations into Deripaska and his Russian rivals,” Jordan and Gaetz wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“McGonigal also ‘received and reviewed a then-classified list of Russian oligarchs with close ties to the Kremlin who would be considered for sanctions to be imposed as a result of Russia’s 2014 conflict with Ukraine,’” they wrote.
“This misconduct further erodes public confidence in the FBI’s conduct and law-enforcement actions,” they added.
McGonigal retired in 2018 and was charged along with a former Soviet and Russian diplomat, Sergey Shestakov.
According to Fox News, “McGonigal, while serving as chief of the cybercrimes section at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., was one of the first bureau officials to learn of allegations that George Papadopoulos, a campaign adviser for former President Donald Trump, boasted that he knew Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, launching the investigation into alleged Russian election interference known as Operation Crossfire Hurricane.”
Mueller’s investigation into Trump, which failed to produce any evidence of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, costed American taxpayers a whopping $30-million-dollars.