@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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here is a thread from 2023 in which Eric Ciaramella's "yikes" is placed in a more detailed context.
In this thread, I suggested that the linkage was connected to Jan 21, 2016 meeting of Ukrainian prosecutors with State Dept officials, noting that Jamie Gusack (reporting to Bridget Brink) had distributing the first demand for Shokin's head (Nov 22 TPs)
as pointed out in that thread, Gusack (State Dept) had been coordinating with Ciaramella (NSC) prior to arrival of Ukr prosecutors in Jan 2016, referring to Shokin replacement.
State Dept cited "diamond prosecutors case" as big deal. But what happened to it next? A long story.
Bridget Brink, Jamie Gusack's boss, reported to Victoria Nuland. Brink was appointed Ambassador to Ukraine in April 2022. Unanimous approval by Senate in early days of war at the exact time that US and UK were sabotaging the peace deal negotiated in Istanbul
as observed yesterday, , after 2014 US coup, the tsunami of billion dollar US/IMF loans was associated with unprecedented embezzlement by Ukr oligarchs thru corrupt Ukr banking system. Rescues of failed banks (mostly unnoticed in west) were markers
in today's thread, I'll provide a short bibliography of articles (mostly Ukrainian language via google translate) on the Ukr banking corruption crisis that began and exploded after the 2014 US coup, while Biden, Blinken, Nuland et al were running Ukraine
once one searches specifically for the topic, there are interesting references, but the topic has received essentially next to zero coverage in the west. I'll take myself as an example. Despite following Ukr affairs quite closely, my prior knowledge was three vignettes.
May 25, 2021: US DOJ announced indictment & arrest of Austrian banker Peter Weinzierl
Mar 13, 2024: we learn that Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant against Weinzierl and had lured Weinzierl to UK on behalf of FBI for arrest justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/t… archive.is/zO1rt
the DOJ charges against Austrian banker Weinzierl, filed during first six months of Biden admin, pertained to allegations that payments made via Meinl Bank in Austria by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht were connected to evasion of taxes in Brazil.
if the concern of US DOJ and FBI with administration of Brazilian tax collection seems somewhat quirky, there may be an ulterior motive: Meinl Bank had a central role in the looting of Ukrainian banks during the 2014-2016 Biden administration of Ukraine.
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, named by NYT as architect of 2014 post-Maidan takeover of Ukrainian intelligence by CIA, is former head of Ukrainian SBU. His comments on Biden corruption deserve attention, but have been ignored.archive.is/zXXQV
on October 10, 2019, early in the Trump impeachment saga, Nalyvaichenko published an op ed in Wall St Journal saying "alliance with US depends on answering questions about Bidens and election interference" [by Ukraine] archive.is/wsrjP
in that editorial, Naluvaichenko, the former SBU hear, stated that Ukraine had responsibility to investigate allegations that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election (a separate issue from Russian interference) and whether Burisma hired Hunter Biden for "cynical purposes".
as Svetlana @RealSLokhova explained to us, intelligence fabricators (like Halper) begin by juxtaposing two targets in the same room and using that juxtaposition for their smear.
Smirnov had multiple Burisma contacts in 2017-Jan 2018, that are provable by email and travel records. See diagram below.
But, according to Weiss, instead of attaching narrative to provable meetings, Smirnov attached his narrative to non-existent contacts in 2015-16 and 2019.
Obvious question: why would Smirnov attach his narrative to fabricated meetings/telecons, when he had multiple real meetings/telecons to which he could have attached the narrative just as easily?
NYT () has major article on how CIA constructed "a network of spy bases [in Ukraine that] includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border", which @aaronjmate has drawn attention to. A couple of interesting chronology points in today's thread.archive.is/zXXQV
first NYT "hero" is Valentyn Nalyvaichenko who, despite Ukraine's constitutional neutrality, on Feb 24, 2014, on first evening of Maidan coup that had overthrown the democratically elected president of Ukraine, as incoming "spy chief", colluded with CIA and MI6 station chiefs
later in the article, NYT laconically stated that, in summer 2015, Ukr president Poroshenko "shook up the domestic service" and "installed an ally to replace Nalyvaichenko, the CIA's trusted partner".