FBI official who worked Trump-Russia probe pleads guilty to conspiring with Russian oligarch

An ex-FBI official who was part of the bureau’s Trump-Russian collusion probe into former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with a Russian oligarch, the Justice Department announced.

Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and conspiring to commit money laundering in connection with his efforts to get a Russian oligarch removed from the U.S. sanctions list. He faces up to five years in prison for each count.

McGonigal’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 14.

“Charles McGonigal broke his oath to defend the Constitution and turned his back on his duty to protect the American people in favor of his own greed by working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch,” said Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division in a statement.

McGonigal, a former top FBI counterintelligence agent based in New York, is the fourth major FBI figure from the Trump-Russia collusion probe to face criminal charges or end up under investigation.

Federal prosecutors in New York and Washington filed separate indictments against McGonigal accusing him of illegally accepting payments for his work with Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch.

McGonigal faces multiple criminal charges related to allegedly violating U.S. sanctions by taking payments from Mr. Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival Russian oligarch.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Washington and there is no indication that he will change his plea there.

As prosecutors tell it, then-FBI official McGonigal and Sergey Shestakov, a court interpreter based in New York, agreed in 2021 to investigate one of Mr. Deripaska’s rivals in exchange for payments. Both defendants are accused of receiving payments through shell companies and forging signatures to keep Mr. Deripaska’s payments secret.

McGonigal made at least $25,000 as an investigator for the law firm before directly working for Mr. Deripaska. He received an initial payment of $51,000 and then payments of $41,790 each month for three months from August 2021 to November 2021, the indictment said.

Prosecutors said McGonigal concealed his ties to the Russian oligarch by telling friends he was working for a “rich Russian guy” and stressed that his work was legal. In conversations about Mr. Deripaska, he would try to keep his employer’s identity a secret by referring to him as “the big guy” and “you know whom.”