@HansMahncke in my earlier comments, I was looking at New York indictment; I just noticed that there were two indictments and that persons in Washington indictment quite different.
FFS.
In 2017, a senior FBI counterintelligence official was receiving cash in a car from Albanians, while putting Flynn in a barrel over filing under LDA, rather FARA (following advice from Covington and Burley.)
to be clear - McGonigal wasn't personally putting Flynn in a barrel, that was being done by his FBI colleagues.
Person A is a naturalized US citizen born in Albania, resident in NJ. Former employee of Albanian intel service ~30 years ago. Should be identifable.
McGonigal is mentioned on several occasions in the //Marco Polo// report on Hunter Biden laptop. They observed that daughters of McGonigal and Hunter Biden played soccer together (Dec 2014 email.) MarcoPolo tied Pamela to Charles McGonigal via Facebook.
Marco Polo reported a Nov 18, 2017 exchange betw Hunter and Kobre&Kim bidenlaptopreport.marcopolousa.org/Report.pdf after Hunter received $1MM to aid Patrick Ho of CEFC. They ask whether McGonigal was one of FBI agents Hunter had talked to. In fall 2017, McGonigal got $255,000 in cash from Albanians.
Looks to me like McGonigal is more strongly linked to Hunter Biden corruption world than to Russiagate investigation. But we'll see. Would be nice to identify the Albanians hooked up with McGonigal. Was Hunter active in Albania?
Person-B was an "Albanian national" employed by a "Chinese energy conglomerate". CEFC is definitely a dig-here, especially in fall 2017 context. If so, another link to Hunter.
identification of Ducka as Person-B also places this article washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/bidens… in an entirely new light. It says identified several Albanian mobsters as connected to Sinaloa cartel.
it then reported that Ducka was in a photograph of a meeting between Albanian PM Rama and the Albanian mobsters said to be connected to Sinaloa cartel.
McGonigal has interesting friends.
tiranapost.al/english/politi…
Joe together with Albanian President. Joe is wondering where he is and wishing he had an ice cream cone.
McGonigal was indicted on multiple false statements charges, but, given underlying offense, charges seem light. In fall 2017, Albanians gave $225,000 in cash to McGonigal. In Nov 2017, McGonigal instigated prosecution of political opponent (in US) of his Albanian paymasters.
McGonigal and one of the Albanians sought $500,000 from a Bosnian pharma company in exchange for arranging a meeting with US officials.
this proposal had developed from a trip to Europe by McGonigal and Person A. Person C below is a "former Bosnian defense minister." . balkaninsight.com/2021/11/29/for… who is undoubtedly Selmo Cikotic, a former Bosnian defense minister charged in 2021 for corruption
businessinsider.com/exclusive-fbi-… subpoena in this Business Insider article (Sep 15, 2022) provides names that can be associated with indictment
proposed identification of Dojan Ducka as Person-B is supported. However, Person-A is Agron Neza (Spectrum Risk Solutions), not Bedri Lita. Davud Zahirovic (Zada Pharmaceuticals) =Person-D.
after receiving $255,000 in cash from Albanian regime, McGonigal instigated prosecution of the US lobbyist representing Albanian opposition party. @HansMahncke spotted Nick Muzin as the victim of McGonigal's corrupt persecution for hire. (Others have also) motherjones.com/politics/2018/…
Agron Neza, Ducka and Nick Muzin are also identified in this VOA article targeted to Albania voxnews.al/english/fokus/…
this article points out that Neza's company, Spectrum Risk Solutions (and also McGonigal) were identified in a FARA filing by Shestakov. So it looks like McGonigal washed his payments for investigating Oligarch-2 through an Albanian-controlled company
a few weeks after McGonigal-instigated criminal investigation commenced, McGonigal dined with PM Albania and a "former FBI agent". Based on the subpoena, the former agent can be identified as Louis Bladel of Ernst&Young, McGonigal's predecessor as SAC, Counterintelligence, NYFO
a couple of months later, kryeministria.al/en/newsroom/ni… PM Rami announced that Ernst&Young had obtained an important contract in Albania, giving a special shout out to Lou Bladel, McGonigal's buddy.
Person-B in the McGonigal DC indictment (Dorjan Ducka) sent Twitter follow request to ... Hunter Biden. Great spotting in Biden laptop by Swampkiller
fbi.gov/news/press-rel…
On Oct 4, 2016, McGonigal was transferred to SAC, Counterintelligence at NYFO. For previous year or so, he had been Section Chief of Cyber Counterintelligence Coordination Section (C3S). In this mini-subthread, I'll follow the latter connection.
Sharp-eyed readers may recall that, within one day, FBI cyber specialists had immediately laughed off the Alfa Bank hoax brought to FBI by Sussmann and the disappointment of Pientka, Auten, Moffa and that FBI Counterintel (CD) persisted anyway.
the FBI agent who gave the bad news to FBI Counterintel was Brandon Norwat, a Unit Chief with Cyber Counterintel Coordination Section, who reported to Section Chief McGonigal.
@TheAndersPaul draws attention to this Feb 2019 agreement in which McGonigal, Mark Rossini and Agron Neza each acquire 25% interests in an company owned by Shefqet Dizdari, who turns out to be a prominent and notorious person in Albania.
The other new name in this contract is Mark Rossini. He turns out to be a former FBI agent who was arrested on corruption charges in Puerto Rico. Birds of a feather. usnews.com/news/us/articl…
Rossini has interesting background. 2022 interview here on Saudi involvement in 9/11.
sot.com.al/english/politi…
Albanian media alive with "McGonigal case", which has major ramifications in Albanian political caste
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In 2014, Ben Cardin, McCain and others condemned charges against Mikhail Sakaashvili, stating "the pursuit of justice should not become a tool of political retribution and a source of national division". Does Cardin still believe that?
Full statement: cardin.senate.gov/press-releases…
Jeanne Shaheen (NH) also condemned charges against Sakaashvili, saying "the pursuit of justice should not become a tool of political retribution and source of national division".
Yet Cardin and Shaheen stand by silently when it comes to their own political opponents.
in July 2014, State Dept's Jen Psaki stated re Sakaashvili: "Commitment to the rule of law means both that everyone must comply with the law in a democratic society and that the legal system should not be used as a tool of political retribution." 2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/20…
@TrustIsEarnd@koumiss@Shem_Infinite@FOOL_NELSON I had ringside seat at Climategate inquiries which were a fiasco. One very important way that institutional inquiries fail is that they have narrow terms of reference that result in very important issues being outside the terms of reference.
@TrustIsEarnd@koumiss@Shem_Infinite@FOOL_NELSON For example, Horowitz' investigation of Carter Page FISA focused on a very minor and fairly irrelevant aspect of Russiagate and ran the clock for three years. Fortunately, it sometimes strayed a little outside its terms and it was those strays that were interesting.
Aaron Mate's article on new OPCW "report" reminds us of the fundamental inconsistency underlying implausible US intel agency/Bellingcat attribution of Douma deaths to chlorine cylinder dropped from government helicopter mate.substack.com/p/burying-key-…
originally, US intel agencies attributed to the deaths to sarin, based primarily on social media allegations from AlQaeda-allied jihadis backed by US government and on the appaling "scene" revealed by jihadi videographers
Douma was liberated from jihadis a few days after the incident and became the FIRST location of an alleged chemical attack incident which could be tested by western analysts. OPCW found NO, ZERO, NADA evidence of sarin or nerve gas in building. (Jihadis had removed the bodies)
, they show less redacted version of prior Solomon version (left) justthenews.com/sites/default/…
Differences are interesting.
in 2020 version, ALL recipients except Nuland were redacted, even though recipients were persons of pubic interest: Eric Ciaramella, Anna Makanju (now a Facebook czar), Bridget Brink and others thus far under radar: Gregory Pfleger, Karen Robblee, Kenichiro Toko, Anne Benjaminson
the purported justification for redaction of names of even quite senior personnel was (b)(6) "a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy". These emails were sent in an official, not personal, capacity. Redactions have been key method of preventing sunshine on swamp.
Robert Costello was Michael Cohen's lawyer. Cohen signed a confidentiality waiver during Mueller.
Costello's testimony about Cohen was savage: he said that Cohen was very disturbed and, under Mueller duress, was prepared to lie to save himself. Unusable by any fair prosecutor
Cosello said that he was so disturbed by Cohen's public statements (which were not what he had told Costello) that, under the waiver, he took evidence to prosecutor.
He said that the prosecutor was not interested in the exculpatory information that Costello had presented and avoided questioning Costello on those topics. Costello said that he gave the testimony anyway whenever he got a chance to speak.
as a thought experiment: to show inclusivity of a despised minority, would it be appropriate for sports leagues to require their players to wear MAGA insignia on a given day? Would leagues be justified in penalizing refusenik players?
now that I think about it, when Diversity Equity and Inclusion officials record the representation of minorities, they conspicuously omit MAGA deplorables as a class. Should corporate, academic and public sector diversity extend to MAGAs? (Same applies to Canadian equivalent.)
maybe the correct reaction to DEI abuse is to demand that MAGA deplorables be recognized as a minority under DEI rules and litigate for them as an oppressed minority. Applying one of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: use the establishment's rules against them.