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Botany

(73,139 posts)
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 10:45 AM Feb 2023

CHARLES MCGONIGAL Where is the coverage?

The former head of the FBI's NYC Office for Counterintelligence was being paid by Vlad Putin in 2016 through Oleg Deripaska and that story has all but disappeared from our "liberal media." And during that time the NY Times put on their front page that the FBI sees no links between Trump and Russia and then the Director of the James Comey pushed the phony story about Hillary and her emails which was a Russian talking point.

BTW I have read on DU that it was Oleg Deripaska's nephew who was
funding Tony DeVolder aka George Santos. Santos is in my opinion a
Russian installed chaos agent who after he is removed from the House
will disappear because Vlad doesn't like loose ends.

Vlad and Russia have been at war with America and our Democracy for
many years and they have helpers in the GOP, media, and social media
sites too. For the love of God they installed TFG into the White House.
Where is the coverage of what has been happening?

************************************************

Former Special Agent In Charge Of The New York FBI Counterintelligence Division Charged With Violating U.S. Sanctions On Russia

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a Court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch. They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better. This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll said: “The FBI is committed to the enforcement of economic sanctions designed to protect the United States and our allies, especially against hostile activities of a foreign government and its actors. Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska perform global malign influence on behalf of the Kremlin and are associated with acts of bribery, extortion, and violence. As alleged, Mr. McGonigal and Mr. Shestakov, both U.S. citizens, acted on behalf of Deripaska and fraudulently used a U.S. entity to obscure their activity in violation of U.S. sanctions. After sanctions are imposed, they must be enforced equally against all U.S. citizens in order to be successful. There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former FBI official like Mr. McGonigal. Supporting a designated threat to the United States and our allies is a crime the FBI will continue to pursue aggressively.”

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-special-agent-charge-new-york-fbi-counterintelligence-division-charged-violating

60 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
CHARLES MCGONIGAL Where is the coverage? (Original Post) Botany Feb 2023 OP
Seriously! Where is it? Lulu KC Feb 2023 #1
You mean other than all major networks and newspapers? Effete Snob Feb 2023 #2
It was big on 1/23 Lulu KC Feb 2023 #5
Well, what happened is... Effete Snob Feb 2023 #6
Yes, like Hunter Biden's laptop. Wednesdays Feb 2023 #35
Yea maybe they can talk about it like was a ballon Fullduplexxx Feb 2023 #40
The balloon stuff was stupid Effete Snob Feb 2023 #44
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Feb 2023 #54
If there is a lesson to be drawn from the ending days of WWII bucolic_frolic Feb 2023 #3
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Feb 2023 #55
I found this in Rolling Stone just now Lulu KC Feb 2023 #4
I think we should all realize the enough money can buy almost anyone. Follow the money. usaf-vet Feb 2023 #41
But Hunter malaise Feb 2023 #7
If you want to know the story gab13by13 Feb 2023 #8
Spot on Gab13by13 Traildogbob Feb 2023 #22
Nicole Wallace triron Feb 2023 #24
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Feb 2023 #60
GREAT question!! Scrivener7 Feb 2023 #9
I think this has been covered stopdiggin Feb 2023 #10
That's right, gab13by13 Feb 2023 #14
there is almost certainly a 'larger picture' stopdiggin Feb 2023 #23
Waaaaaat??? Not earthshaking or "juicy"??? Scrivener7 Feb 2023 #57
minor influence peddling stopdiggin Feb 2023 #58
Incidentally, why are you misrepresenting the Justice press release? Effete Snob Feb 2023 #11
Stuff: Botany Feb 2023 #19
This message was self-deleted by its author stopdiggin Feb 2023 #25
"... has been pretty much debunked." No it hasn't Botany Feb 2023 #30
I retract stopdiggin Feb 2023 #32
Not sure what are the motivations of the naysayers . triron Feb 2023 #33
Oh, I'll make mine clear Effete Snob Feb 2023 #45
I read you. It's not on the theme loop used so often. I see the problem too. It's not been a refrain mahina Feb 2023 #12
Because thus far there is not a wider story Effete Snob Feb 2023 #15
The fuck there isn't. It dates back as far as 1973. That's 50 years of KGB infiltration in FBI msfiddlestix Feb 2023 #48
Has anything happened since the the arrest? Fiendish Thingy Feb 2023 #13
Tune in to Deadline Whitehouse gab13by13 Feb 2023 #16
MOST interesting. Thanks for the heads-up for Monday. calimary Feb 2023 #26
K&R Thanks for posting. n/t TeamProg Feb 2023 #17
Might lead someone to ask if FBI threw election to Trump? Kid Berwyn Feb 2023 #18
The FBI knew of the Trump Russia connections in 2016 Botany Feb 2023 #20
Read the article Kid Berwyn posted up thread, the FBI KNEW of Russian connections since 1973 onward msfiddlestix Feb 2023 #47
The Russian/Christo Fascist/GOP on going COUP/crime wave are way deep into our systems Botany Feb 2023 #49
✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ n/t msfiddlestix Feb 2023 #53
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Feb 2023 #21
+1 excellent points bronxiteforever Feb 2023 #27
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Feb 2023 #56
like it republianmushroom Feb 2023 #28
Oh, so you think Trump's, "I don't see any reason why", answer was specious? jaxexpat Feb 2023 #29
I agree about George Santos/Tony Devolder PatSeg Feb 2023 #31
It comes up every now and then on MSNBC Catherine Vincent Feb 2023 #34
K n R ! Thanks for posting!...nt JoeOtterbein Feb 2023 #36
Very good questions Botany. "Liberal media" Ya right! Evolve Dammit Feb 2023 #37
"...a Russian installed chaos agent..." Has a ring of truth concerning Santos. Samrob Feb 2023 #38
"a Russian installed chaos agent" Botany Feb 2023 #43
Embarrassed bureaucrats don't want to talk about it Warpy Feb 2023 #39
Weren't Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe involved.... Postal Grunt Feb 2023 #42
The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016 LetMyPeopleVote Feb 2023 #46
yes, compared to bullshit like Benghazi and Hunter's laptop Skittles Feb 2023 #50
Oleg Deripaska is MoscowMitch's buddy Hermit-The-Prog Feb 2023 #51
...K&R... spanone Feb 2023 #52
Good question. yardwork Feb 2023 #59

Lulu KC

(6,567 posts)
5. It was big on 1/23
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 10:54 AM
Feb 2023

Then what happened? Super Bowl? Balloons?
I will admit I'm not as sharp as I used to be, but this seems significant enough to have had longer attention.

 

Effete Snob

(8,387 posts)
6. Well, what happened is...
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 10:59 AM
Feb 2023

He’s been arraigned and a number of procedural dates in his prosecution have been set.

I would expect more coverage when, you know, something happens.
 

Effete Snob

(8,387 posts)
44. The balloon stuff was stupid
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 03:11 PM
Feb 2023

But at least there were developments along the way.

We know the DoJ indicted this guy and the charges against him. That's not going to change anytime soon. There may be a lot more to come in this one, but they don't just repeat the same thing every day.

Response to Effete Snob (Reply #44)

bucolic_frolic

(48,509 posts)
3. If there is a lesson to be drawn from the ending days of WWII
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 10:53 AM
Feb 2023

it might be that spooks of all affiliations know how to work together. It's almost a brotherhood. We enlisted former Nazi agents to do the spying for us, they knew the territory and had contacts. They knew of the movement to South America and the principals into the Soviet Union. Spies protecting spies? It's not a new game.

Response to bucolic_frolic (Reply #3)

usaf-vet

(7,245 posts)
41. I think we should all realize the enough money can buy almost anyone. Follow the money.
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 01:45 PM
Feb 2023

How much did the Russian Oligarch pay Magonigal to become a Russian asset?

Who else have they bought?

Does it take millions or billions. Look at Trump's son-in-law, 2.0 billions by all accounts.




gab13by13

(26,309 posts)
8. If you want to know the story
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:06 AM
Feb 2023

tune in to MSNBC this Monday at 4PM.

Otherwise cable news is going to give you balloons, Trump, laptops, Nikki Haley, Trump, Ron DeSantis, President Biden's physical, Trump, the border crisis.

Traildogbob

(10,567 posts)
22. Spot on Gab13by13
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:14 PM
Feb 2023

One person has brought up the Robert Hanssen arrest and conviction from 2002. The same scenario, high ranking FBI counterintelligence traitor selling secrets to RUSSIA.
And that would be Nichol Wallace.
And HE is serving life in solitary in a fed prison in Colorado. Where trump et al belong.

Response to gab13by13 (Reply #8)

stopdiggin

(13,303 posts)
10. I think this has been covered
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:09 AM
Feb 2023

to the extent that I was aware of each point made in the post.

You can/could make a point that the 'overall picture of influence' should be hammered every day - but the McGonigal case itself wasn't that earthshaking or juicy. To the degree that it was relevant or important - it did get reported.

gab13by13

(26,309 posts)
14. That's right,
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:28 AM
Feb 2023

since we can't prove the connection between Derepaska, Manafort, Kilimnik had anything to do with the boatloads of money that Derepaska gave to McGonigal.

I understand what the MSM talking points are, the money was just, only for, removing sanctions from Derepaska. I don't buy MSM talking points. We just uncovered Putin's chef who was working out of Mexico to influence the 2020 election. I'm guessing that Putin and his cronies were deeply involved in the 2020 election, such as the guy who just got caught funneling Russian money to Magats.

I can guarantee this, you didn't get your information from Deadline Whitehouse.

stopdiggin

(13,303 posts)
23. there is almost certainly a 'larger picture'
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:20 PM
Feb 2023

involved (and I made a point of mentioning hammering 'overall influence' in my post) On the other hand - 'influence games' for and against governments around the globe - are an old and time tested tradition, played by almost everybody. So - money floating around in DC - not really new, and not really all that 'shocking.' And, to a degree of almost certainty, the Russians are not alone in either their goals or their machinations. (and that's without even getting into the places where our own government has been mucking about - past and present) Within that context, McGonigal's role in the Russian machine does not appear to be terribly significant. Disappointing, yes - and hopefully he will pay a price. But, circling back - the OP made a point of calling out the coverage of this particular piece of the picture (McGonigal) - and overall, (IMO) his part in all of this pretty much got the coverage it deserved.

 

Effete Snob

(8,387 posts)
11. Incidentally, why are you misrepresenting the Justice press release?
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:11 AM
Feb 2023

The link you provided says:

“ In 2021, MCGONIGAL and SHESTAKOV conspired to provide services to Deripaska, in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska in 2018. ”

Thus far, he is charged with violating sanctions that were imposed in 2018, by his actions in 2021. That’s what it says in the info you linked.

But, you say something different:

“ The former head of the FBI's NYC Office for Counterintelligence was being paid by Vlad Putin in 2016…”

That’s interesting. If that has been established, it would be significant.

Can you identify your source of information that he was being paid in 2016?

Give that he has been arrested for violating sanctions that didn’t exist in 2016, then it would be interesting to know where that came from.

Botany

(73,139 posts)
19. Stuff:
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:56 AM
Feb 2023

Oleg Deripaska was paying McGonigal in 2016 and the idea he was paying the top FBI
Agent who was in charge of investigating Trump and Russian connections in 2016 w/out
Putin's knowledge to me at least isn't credible.

The FBI was well aware of the > 2,500 contacts between Putin's Alfa Bank and the Trump
campaign's computer server in Lititiz, PA and yet somebody or somebodies from the FBI
told the NY Times that the FBI saw no connection between Trump and Russia.



Response to Botany (Reply #19)

Botany

(73,139 posts)
30. "... has been pretty much debunked." No it hasn't
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:42 PM
Feb 2023

Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaign

> 2,500 contacts between between Putin's Alfa Bank and the Trump Campaign from spring until fall of 2016
and another 200 or 300 contacts between Alfa Bank's computers and Betsy DeVoss' computers in Michigan
in 2016 which then puts Betsy's brother Erik (blackwater) Prince into the loop.

stopdiggin

(13,303 posts)
32. I retract
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:52 PM
Feb 2023

It seems pretty clear that the communications (be they email or whatever) most certainly did exist. What remains completely unknown (apparently to this day) - is what those communications regarded, or what their purpose might have been. But "debunked?" No - that's not correct.
(and as such I will delete ..)

 

triron

(22,240 posts)
33. Not sure what are the motivations of the naysayers .
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:56 PM
Feb 2023

But they are pretty consistent and persistent. Just saying.

 

Effete Snob

(8,387 posts)
45. Oh, I'll make mine clear
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 03:21 PM
Feb 2023

The OP is an attack on the "Fake News", of the "the media is covering up the real truth about x" variety.

It would be interesting to know when McGonigle became involved with the subject of his previous investigations.

If you have information confirming that he was getting paid in 2016, I'd really like to see that.

Because when I read the OP, I thought there had been some new information, so I clicked on the link, and the claim in the OP is not supported by the information at the link.

But, please, I would love to know what you do about when McGonigle turned.

mahina

(19,383 posts)
12. I read you. It's not on the theme loop used so often. I see the problem too. It's not been a refrain
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:14 AM
Feb 2023

As Benghazi, Hunter’s laptop, etc.
It’s easy for people to miss and it shouldn’t be!

 

Effete Snob

(8,387 posts)
15. Because thus far there is not a wider story
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:34 AM
Feb 2023

The OP misrepresents what has been documented thus far.

This far, he is charged with crimes committed in 2021.

One might speculate that he was Rudy’s contact and had been involved in events in 2016, as the OP appears to do. That speculation may turn out to be correct.

But by referring to Hunter and Benghazi, are you saying that there has not been enough of an effort to push unsupported speculation? Because that’s what keeps those things going.

msfiddlestix

(7,974 posts)
48. The fuck there isn't. It dates back as far as 1973. That's 50 years of KGB infiltration in FBI
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 03:55 PM
Feb 2023

That explains a lot of what happened in 2016 to this day and why we can't get these matters adjudicated to the obvious extent.

Got nothing at all to do with Biden or Garland by the way.





Fiendish Thingy

(19,023 posts)
13. Has anything happened since the the arrest?
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:19 AM
Feb 2023

There was a lot of coverage the week after the arrest, but if nothing has happened since then, and no new information is available, what is there to cover?

gab13by13

(26,309 posts)
16. Tune in to Deadline Whitehouse
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:35 AM
Feb 2023

on Monday and I guarantee that this will be covered. Nicolle raked a former FBI agent over the coals last week. I had to laugh when he said the FBI arrested him as a defense. McGonigal's ex-girlfriend turned him in to the FBI. So the narrative about how the FBI was all over this is pretty shaky.

This is a BFD no matter how the MSM frames it, the FBI is in cover its ass mode right now.

calimary

(85,146 posts)
26. MOST interesting. Thanks for the heads-up for Monday.
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:30 PM
Feb 2023

I usually try to catch “Deadline White House” and Nicolle Wallace actually impresses me, especially when I remind myself of her Republican background.

Kid Berwyn

(19,067 posts)
18. Might lead someone to ask if FBI threw election to Trump?
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 11:54 AM
Feb 2023


Did the FBI’s Charles McGonigal Help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?

The shocking indictments against the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI in New York raise many dark questions.


By Craig Unger
The National Review, February 1, 2023

In the course of writing two books on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, the same question occurred to me again and again: How is it possible that I knew all sorts of stuff about Donald Trump, and the FBI didn’t seem to have a clue? Or if they did, why weren’t they doing anything with it?

Specifically, I knew that:

* Starting in 1980, an alleged “spotter agent” for the KGB began cultivating Trump as a new asset for Soviet intelligence.

* The Russian mafia laundered millions of dollars through Donald Trump’s real estate by purchasing condos in all-cash transactions through anonymous corporations that did not disclose real ownership.

* Trump Tower was a home away from home for Vyacheslav Ivankov, one of the most brutal leaders of the Russian mafia, and at least 13 people with known or alleged links to the mafia held the deeds to, lived in, or ran alleged criminal operations out of Trump Tower in New York or other Trump properties.

* Trump was some $4 billion in debt when the Russians came to bail him out via the Bayrock Group, a real estate firm that was largely staffed, owned, and financed by Soviet émigrés who had ties to Russian intelligence and/or organized crime.


Much of my material came from FBI documents. A lot came from open-source databases. It made no sense. There was an astounding amount of data on the public record. The FBI had launched enormous investigations of the Russian mafia in the 1980s. They had staked out a New York electronics store that was a haven for KGB officers. They knew that’s where the Trump Organization bought hundreds of TV sets. They had their eyes on Ivankov and other Russian mobsters who were denizens of Trump’s casinos and bought and sold his condos through shell companies. They had to know that Trump laundered money for and provided a base of operations for the Russian mafia, which was, after all, a de facto state actor tied to Russian intelligence. They had to know that the Russians repeatedly bailed Trump out when he was bankrupt. They had to know that Russia owned him.

Snip…

As FBI director, Freeh had warned that Russian organized crime posed a grave threat to the United States that far transcended mere criminality. It is not clear how much he was paid by Prevezon after he switched sides, but Freeh later bought a $9.38 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, just a 10-minute drive from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Then there was the late James Kallstrom, who ran the FBI’s New York office in the mid-’90s and oversaw successful investigations into both the Italian Mafia and later the Russian mob. Kallstrom had developed close friendships with two key players in the Trump-Russia saga. He worked closely with then–U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Rudy Giuliani in the investigation of the Cosa Nostra network that led to the famed Mafia Commission Trial of 1985–1986. Going even further back, Kallstrom had also been friends with Donald Trump since around 1973, when Kallstrom was putting together a Trump-funded parade in New York to honor Vietnam veterans.

Continues…

https://newrepublic.com/article/170328/charles-mcgonigal-throw-2016-election

msfiddlestix

(7,974 posts)
47. Read the article Kid Berwyn posted up thread, the FBI KNEW of Russian connections since 1973 onward
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 03:41 PM
Feb 2023

This is why Imo the radio silence on this story. Because the FBI has been implicit with Russian intelligence and Russian mobsters for a half century. that's 50 effin years as related to Trump and Russian KGB and Russian Mobsters.

50 years of FBI complicity apparently is too much for the press to deal with. I guess.

Botany

(73,139 posts)
49. The Russian/Christo Fascist/GOP on going COUP/crime wave are way deep into our systems
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 04:16 PM
Feb 2023

Trump wasn't a made man but he was mobbed up big time, along with underage disco sex parties,
and his being a full on Russian Asset*.



* A New Report Adds Evidence That Trump Was a Russian Asset
He helped Putin manipulate the U.S. election in 2020, as he did in 2016.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/trump-russian-asset-election-intelligence-community-report.html

ATTN right wing trolls check it out. That the report was written by Republicans.

Response to Kid Berwyn (Reply #18)

bronxiteforever

(9,872 posts)
27. +1 excellent points
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:34 PM
Feb 2023

The OP is a great post to discover lurking GOPer Trolls. Look to their lack of recommendations and lack of support for DU and don’t feed them.

Response to Kid Berwyn (Reply #18)

 

jaxexpat

(7,794 posts)
29. Oh, so you think Trump's, "I don't see any reason why", answer was specious?
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:39 PM
Feb 2023

Several people thought that, I heard. But I get it. "Specious" is maybe the wrong word. Maybe treason or traitor is better.

If we could but locate a DOJ that would be interested in eliminating actual treasonous types from our government. That would be good.

PatSeg

(49,841 posts)
31. I agree about George Santos/Tony Devolder
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:42 PM
Feb 2023

All signs indicated he is some kind of Russian asset, whether witting or unwitting. His whole story is just too bizarre and the only people/person who I can see backing him would be the Russians/Putin. That money had to come from somewhere and who else would finance him besides Putin?

Novelists don't write geo-political thrillers like this because it is just too absurd to even be fictional.

Catherine Vincent

(34,545 posts)
34. It comes up every now and then on MSNBC
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 12:59 PM
Feb 2023

Every Dem that appears on all the different shows should mention McGonagil just as often as the Ratpublicans when they mention HBL.

Botany

(73,139 posts)
43. "a Russian installed chaos agent"
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 01:57 PM
Feb 2023

Of course he is and the more outlandish the lie he tells the better because our media will
talk about how untrue what he said was and then the chaos spreads. People should have
stopped believing anything from that short little toad of a man when he told people he was
a champion volleyball player.

Does this look like Tony DeVolder (santos)?

Warpy

(113,131 posts)
39. Embarrassed bureaucrats don't want to talk about it
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 01:41 PM
Feb 2023

They need to talk to people who worked under McGonigal, people who weren't completely bent and who want to keep their jobs.

Right now, the higher ups are in CYA mode, trying to assess what kind of damage he did to the agency and their reputations for not spotting him sooner. As it is, they couldn't find their butts with both hands in their back pockets when it came to TFG. It might be time to revisit a lot of stuff concerning that particular piece of shit.

Postal Grunt

(239 posts)
42. Weren't Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe involved....
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 01:48 PM
Feb 2023

in investigating the Russian and Ukrainian mobsters in NYC? When one looks back on how Russian mobster purchases of the former president's real estate properties helped ease him out of bankruptcy, it's not difficult to start suspecting that there was a lot more there than publicly met the eyes of the FBI. It could also explain the over animated public disdain exhibited by TFG towards those two agents and the FBI.

LetMyPeopleVote

(157,865 posts)
46. The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016
Sun Feb 19, 2023, 03:26 PM
Feb 2023

The combination of the NYT and crooked FBI agents got TFG elected. I canceled my subscription to the NYT back in 2016 due to the biased coverage. The NYT is not a real news organization and actually worked with the NYC office of the FBI to elect TFG



https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/mcgonigal-russian-oligarch-trump-2016-election-20230129.html

It was arguably the most consequential “October Surprise” in the history of American presidential elections. In the waning days of the 2016 race, with polls showing Hillary Clinton clinging to a lead over Donald Trump, two last-minute stories broke that rekindled on-the-fence voters’ ethical doubts about Democrat Clinton and quashed a budding scandal around her GOP rival.

Except the “October Surprise” was no surprise to one key player: Rudolph Giuliani, the ex-New York mayor and Trump insider who later became the 45th president’s attorney. Late that month, Giuliani told Fox News that the trailing Republican nominee had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises.”

Just two days later, then-FBI director James Comey revealed the bureau had reopened its probe into Clinton’s emails, based on the possible discovery of new communications on a laptop belonging to disgraced New York politico Anthony Weiner. The news jolted the campaign with a particularly strong boost from the New York Times, which devoted two-thirds of its front page to the story — and the notion it was a major blow to Clinton’s prospects.

It was later reported that Comey was motivated to make the unusual announcement about the laptop because he feared leaks from the FBI’s New York field office, which, according to Reuters, had “a faction of investigators based in the office known to be hostile to Hillary Clinton.” Indeed, Giuliani bragged immediately after that he had sources in the FBI, including current agents.



......The government allegations against the former G-man Charles McGonigal (also accused of taking a large foreign payment while still on the FBI payroll) and the outsized American influence of the sanctioned-and-later-indicted Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska — also tied to U.S. pols from Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell — should make us also look again at what was really up with the FBI in 2016.

How coordinated was the effort in that New York field office to pump up the ultimate nothingburger about Clinton’s emails while poo-pooing the very real evidence of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf, and who were the agents behind it? What was the role, if any, of McGonigal and his international web of intrigue? Was the now-tainted McGonigal a source who told the New York Times that fateful October that Russia was not trying to help Trump win the election — before the U.S. intelligence community determined the exact opposite? If not McGonigal, just who was intentionally misleading America’s most influential news org, and why?......

It’s not only that America’s so-called paper of record has never apologized for its over-the-top coverage of the Clinton emails or the deeply flawed story about the FBI Trump-Russia probe. It’s that the Times has shown a stunning lack of curiosity about finding out what went wrong. In May 2017, or just seven months after Trump’s election, then-Times executive editor Dean Baquet ended the position of public editor, an independent journalist who was embedded in the newsroom to cover controversies exactly like these.
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»CHARLES MCGONIGAL Where ...