Is it too much to ask that FBI officials who track Russian oligarchs not retire and go to work for Russian oligarchs?
It is a sad fact of life that public faith in the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not what it used to be. Back in October, a Gallup poll found that 50 percent of Americans thought the FBI was doing a good job, which was an improvement from 2021, when just 44 percent of Americans said the same. But for a long stretch, that figure was just below 60 percent.
No doubt that the investigations of figures like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump contributed to many Americans’ recent mistrust of the bureau. Many Democrats think any FBI investigation of Clinton was a witch hunt, and many Republicans think any FBI investigation of Donald Trump is a witch hunt. And observers point to what they see as differences in how each presidential candidate was treated and see a partisan thumb on the scales of justice.
Last October, our Andy McCarthy wrote in a cover piece:
With respect to the FBI, the question is whether the critical mission of serving as America’s domestic-security service, responsible for counterintelligence operations against agents of foreign powers, is one we can prudently assign to what is also supposed to be the nation’s leading federal law-enforcement agency. Critical as both security missions are, foreign counterintelligence and domestic law enforcement are not just different; they are in many ways at cross-purposes. Should the FBI really be doing both? And if it does both, can it do them effectively? Can it do either of them effectively?
However you define the FBI’s mission, it seems pretty reasonable to ask that the FBI senior personnel who are in charge of making sure sanctions are enforced against Russian oligarchs, do not retire and then turn around and go to work for Russian oligarchs and conspire to evade those sanctions. From a Department of Justice press release:
According to court documents, Charles F. McGonigal, 54, of New York City, and Sergey Shestakov, 69, of Morris, Connecticut, are charged in a five-count indictment unsealed today in the Southern District of New York with violating and conspiring to violate the IEEPA, and with conspiring to commit money laundering and money laundering.
…According to court documents, on April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Oleg Deripaska as a Specially Designated National (SDN) in connection with its finding that the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy. According to the U.S. Treasury, Deripaska was sanctioned for having acted or purported to act on behalf of, directly or indirectly, a senior official of the Government of the Russian Federation and for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy.
McGonigal is a former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in New York who retired in 2018. While working at the FBI, McGonigal supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Deripaska. Sergey Shestakov is a former Soviet and Russian diplomat who later became a U.S. citizen and a Russian interpreter for courts and government offices.
In 2021, McGonigal and Shestakov conspired to provide services to Deripaska, in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska in 2018. Specifically, following their negotiations with an agent of Deripaska, McGonigal and Shestakov agreed to and did investigate a rival Russian oligarch in return for concealed payments from Deripaska.
The full indictment can be read here.
Just to clarify, McGonigal was one of the FBI officials investigating whether Trump had illegal ties to Russia. And he himself left the FBI to go work for a Russian oligarch, in violation of U.S. law. No wonder Americans have doubts about the bureau.
For what it is worth, McGonigal was a big fan of former FBI director James Comey.
“James Comey has been officially fired,” said Charles McGonigal, special agent in charge of the FBI’s counterintelligence division at its New York field office. He spoke alongside William Evanina, director of the Counterintelligence and Security Center at an event organized by the Foreign Policy Association.
“I think we both felt that Director Comey was probably one of the most loved leaders that we’ve had in a number of years commanding a leadership role in the FBI,” McGonigal said. “I think many of us who were nominated for leadership positions by him will forever hold him in esteem as we progress through our FBI careers.”