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A former high-level FBI official was indicted on charges that he secretly received at least $225,000 from an ex-foreign security officer while he oversaw a counterintelligence division at the agency, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.
Charles McGonigal, who served as the special agent in charge of FBI counterintelligence in New York, allegedly concealed the nature of his relationship with a former Albanian intelligence agent from August 2017 through McGonigal’s retirement in September 2018 and until at least May 2019, the authorities said.
McGonigal requested the payment in cash from the former Albanian official, who was a naturalized US citizen living in New Jersey, according to the DOJ.
McGonigal also traveled abroad with the official and met with foreign nationals in Europe, where the official had business interests, according to the DOJ. The ex-Albanian official was later an FBI source in a criminal investigation involving foreign political lobbying that McGonigal oversaw, the government said.
