{"id":1642287,"date":"2022-09-15T23:49:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T03:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642287"},"modified":"2022-09-15T23:49:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T03:49:59","slug":"ex-fbi-agent-who-played-key-role-in-crossfire-hurricane-scrutinized-over-alleged-russia-ties-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-fbi-agent-who-played-key-role-in-crossfire-hurricane-scrutinized-over-alleged-russia-ties-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-FBI Agent Who Played Key Role In Crossfire Hurricane Scrutinized Over Alleged Russia Ties: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fex-fbi-agent-who-played-key-role-in-crossfire-hurricane-scrutinized-over-alleged-russia-ties-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1642287&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Prosecutors have scrutinized a former top official in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/fbi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FBI<\/a> who played a pivotal role in the bureau\u2019s investigation of former President Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign over his alleged ties to Russia and other foreign governments.<\/p>\n<p>A grand jury assembled last year subpoenaed at least one person for information on former FBI special agent Charles McGonigal, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/news\/press-releases\/press-releases\/charles-mcgonigal-named-special-agent-in-charge-of-the-counterintelligence-division-for-the-new-york-field-office\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appointed<\/a> to run the counterintelligence division of the FBI field office in New York City in October of 2016. Prosecutors scrutinized McGonigal\u2019s alleged dealings with a top aid to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, according to court documents obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/exclusive-fbi-charles-mcgonigal-trump-russia-grand-jury-oleg-deripaska-2022-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is unknown whether the grand jury is still convened or whether it was investigating McGonigal or someone with whom he had dealings. The documents reviewed by Insider did not suggest McGonigal had broken any law.<\/p>\n<p>The subpoena requested information on the former FBI official and the consulting firm Spectrum Risk Solutions. Soon after the subpoena was issued, former senior Soviet Foreign Ministry official Sergey Shestakov <a href=\"https:\/\/forensicnews.net\/retired-top-fbi-counterintelligence-official-worked-with-ex-russian-intelligence-officer-close-to-deripaska-foreign-agent-paperwork-reveals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed<\/a> as a foreign agent for Yevgenyi Fokin, a top aid to Deripaska. Shestakov\u2019s filing showed that McGonigal aided Shestakov in making connections between Fokin and Spectrum, and Fokin and the law firm Kobre &#038; Kim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf McGonigal is mixed up in any way shape or form with Deripaska, that strikes me as unseemly, to put it politely,\u201d Tim Weiner, who wrote \u201cEnemies: A History of the FBI,\u201d told Insider.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to working as head of counterintelligence in New York, McGonigal served in the same position, but for the FBI Field Office in Washington, D.C. McGonigal was one of the first FBI officials to hear allegations that a Trump campaign official had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/05\/16\/us\/politics\/crossfire-hurricane-trump-russia-fbi-mueller-investigation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> an Australian diplomat that the Russians had damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The allegations were later believed to be about the WikiLeaks hack of the Democratic National Committee, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/10\/john-podesta-wikileaks-hacked-emails-229304\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released<\/a> emails from the Clinton campaign as well.<\/p>\n<p>Also while McGonigal was in D.C., the bureau began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/graphics\/2018\/politics\/steele-timeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">receiving<\/a> briefings from former British spy Christopher Steele on reports he was drafting that would eventually become the discredited Steele Dossier. McGonigal was key in the launch of FBI operation Crossfire Hurricane into the Trump campaign\u2019s alleged ties to Russia. On October 4, 2016, the FBI announced that then-Director James Comey had promoted McGonigal to head the counterintelligence division in the New York City Field Office.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation into Trump\u2019s alleged ties to Russia hounded the former president for years into his term, eventually ending in a report by special counsel Robert Mueller concluding that investigators found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. An inspector general probe into surveillance applications made by the FBI during its investigation of the Trump campaign found that the applications <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/03\/31\/824510255\/justice-department-ig-finds-widespread-problems-with-fbis-fisa-applications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contained<\/a> \u201capparent errors or inadequately supported facts,\u201d with many due to the salacious and unsupported details contained in the Steele Dossier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors have scrutinized a former top official in the FBI who played a pivotal role in the bureau\u2019s investigation of former President Donald Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign over his alleged ties to Russia and other foreign governments. A grand jury assembled last year subpoenaed at least one person for information on former FBI special agent Charles &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1642289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1642287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1642287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1642287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1642289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1642287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1642287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1642287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}