FBI official who worked Trump-Russia probe, later accused of conspiring with Russia, to plead guilty

An ex-FBI official who was part of the bureau’s Trump-Russian collusion probe into former President Donald Trump’s campaign will plead guilty to charges of colluding with Russia himself, a federal judge suggested on Monday.

Jennifer Reardon, a Manhattan-based federal judge, wrote in an order that attorneys for the disgraced official, Charles McGonigal, wish to change their plea in the case. Initially, Mr. McGonigal had pleaded not guilty to four corruption charges, including conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, conspiring to commit money laundering and conspiring to violate federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals.

Each of the four counts has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

“The court has been informed that defendant Charles McGonigal may wish to enter a change of plea,” Judge Reardon wrote in a brief order. She also scheduled a hearing for Aug. 15.

Mr. 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 Mr. McGonigal accusing him of illegally accepting payments for his work with Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch. Mr. 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.

There is no indication that he will change his plea in Washington.

As prosecutors tell it, then-FBI official Mr. 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.

Mr. 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 Mr. 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.”