A disgraced former FBI agent tipped off an employee of a Chinese-company tied to Hunter Biden about an investigation into the firm, a new watchdog report reveals.
Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in New York, told a businessman employed by Chinese infrastructure conglomerate CEFC about the FBI’s investigation into the company, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a watchdog report on McGonigal’s activities.
From October 2016 to September 2018, McGonigal oversaw the FBI investigation into CEFC and businessman Patrick Ho, an executive at its nonprofit arm and a business associate of Hunter Biden’s who was later convicted in Manhattan on bribery charges. Ho was implicated in a scheme to bribe officials from Chad and Uganda into awarding contracts to CEFC.
A person listed in McGonigal’s Washington, D.C., indictment met with FBI agents in December 2021 and October 2022 and informed the bureau that McGonigal had leaked details of the FBI’s investigation to CEFC before Ho’s arrest, according to the inspector general report.
The unnamed person disclosed that “on multiple occasions before Ho’s arrest, McGonigal leaked confidential information about the CEFC investigation to Person B, which Person B thereafter provided to Ho and the CEFC China Chairman,” the report says.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office weighed obstruction of justice charges against McGonigal for the leak but chose not to pursue them. McGonigal was later indicted in New York on money laundering charges for receiving payments from sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
McGonigal faced separate charges in D.C. for taking funds from an Albanian national and failing to disclose meetings with that person’s business associate. McGonigal was given a 50 month prison sentence for the New York charges and a 28 month sentence in D.C. to be covered by the other prison sentence.
The “Person B” referred to in the inspector general report is a former Albanian government official and employee of CEFC. The individual was an international businessman and consultant who McGonigal sought an introduction to in April 2017.
The businessman was not a target of the FBI’s investigation at the time, but the case team did have concerns about him due to his ties to Ho. McGonigal met with the person in April 2017 despite being told not to. Afterwards, McGonigal had several meetings and calls with the person that he did not disclose to the FBI.
McGonigal first leaked to the businessman in June 2017 during a trip in Florida he took with his future Albanian business partner and a former FBI agent. The businessman told Ho about the investigation the next day when they met in Washington, D.C. where Ho attended a conference.
The businessman and McGonigal met in New York several times afterwards. They discussed CEFC and the chairman’s actions. In November 2017, McGonigal leaked information to the businessman for a second time. McGonigal told the associate something along the lines of “we are ready for them” in reference to the FBI’s investigation into CEFC. The leak happened on a phone call about whether McGonigal would be attending an upcoming CEFC event in New York. Ho was arrested upon arrival to New York to attend the CEFC event.
Days earlier, James Biden attempted to figure out whether there was an active arrest warrant for Ho. A retired Secret Service agent told the FBI that James Biden reached out to him in November 2017 to see if he could determine whether there was a warrant out for Ho’s arrest. The agent and another former Secret Service agent incorrectly concluded that Ho specifically did not have an active warrant.
James Biden disclosed his communications with the Secret Service agent when he testified before the House Oversight Committee last year. The FBI case team concluded that Ho chose to come back to the U.S. after Biden or another individual provided reassurances.
Upon his arrest, Ho sought assistance from the Bidens in his time of need. Ho paid Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer for legal work but nothing ever came of it, according to IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, an agent who spent years on the Hunter Biden tax case before coming forward with allegations of misconduct from federal investigators. Last year, Ho threatened to sue the younger Biden for his $1 million back but it unclear if anything came of it.
When the inspector general interviewed McGonigal, he initially downplayed his relationship with Ho and denied having substantive conversations about CEFC. His attitude changed when shown text messages to the contrary. Eventually, McGonigal acknowledged the full extent of his activities and disclosed that he leaked information about the FBI’s plan to arrest CEFC associates.
McGonigal admitted his motivation was “bravado” and said he did not leak the information to harm the investigation. Neither of the Bidens were implicated in the FBI investigation of CEFC and Ho.
Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden were in business with CEFC for the better part of three years. In early 2017, CEFC wired $3 million to Hunter Biden’s business partner Rob Walker and a third of the funds went to Biden, bank records show. The payment came after Hunter Biden and his business partners developed a business relationship with CEFC during his father Joe’s vice presidency, which concluded in January 2017.
During the impeachment inquiry into then-President Joe Biden, Hunter and James Biden both denied that Joe Biden had any involvement in their business dealings. However, Hunter did confirm Joe Biden met and spoke to his business partners on multiple occasions, including an infamous 2017 meeting with business partner-turned-critic Tony Bobulinski.
The Bidens dismissed Bobulinski’s testimony as motivated by their failed business relationship. Bobulinski was involved with negotiating a business venture with CEFC that did not pan out and led to the one Hunter and James subsequently launched with the company.
In late 2017, Hunter and James Biden explored a joint venture with CEFC known as Hudson West III. CEFC poured $5 million into the account and explored U.S. energy deals, but the venture ultimately fell apart when Ho and other company executives faced legal troubles. A small portion of those funds ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account after a string of transactions involving the Bidens withdrawing money and putting it into various bank accounts.
Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter in the final weeks of his presidency for tax and gun crimes. His son’s business dealings and misbehavior were a major scandal for the final two years of the Biden administration.
Ziegler and fellow whistleblower Gary Shapley are now senior advisors at the Trump administration’s Treasury Department. They were given the roles after facing retribution from the IRS for coming forward.
James Lynch is a news writer for National Review. He previously was a reporter for the Daily Caller. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and based in the Washington, D.C. area.
Reprinted with Permission from National Review – By James Lynch
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
GREED, GREED and more GREED. How many more Americans are taking money from foreign powers for THEMSELVES and committing TREASON against our nation?
A total of of year in jail for doing that. He should face the firing squad.
How much did this TRAITOR receive? For that matter, how much did the Bidens [America’s top crime family] receive?
When will treason be prosecuted with the death penalty once again!!! Stop the bleeding heart Socialist, Marxist, Communist, Elitist, Muslims/Hamas from banding together to destroy America and destroy them instead!!!!
I always thought the penalty for treason was death by firing squad! What a shame that it wasn’t used in this instance!
It seems that today many government employees are committing acts that would’ve gotten them executed in previous generations. Today most aren’t even I charged and many don’t even lose their jobs. It is disgraceful. Bring back charges of TREASON!
Sounds like treason to me, and treason is punishable by death.
Will anyone be charged go to jail or even be arrested? Will the dems ever be punished for their destruction of America? They sold us to China. And nothing happens. President Trump is trying to save the people from violent crime and communists and the dems. Time to get a backbone and arrest these subservient dems. Senators? Speak up.
There are so and too many of his kind in the Government. Never know who to trust. People must educate themselves to read about candidates and/or appointed officials.For the record, MOST Democrats ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY>even though they may start out to be what appears in line..their party will change them.
And the penalty is? JMO
The FBI needs a good housecleaning from top to bottom.
Scum. Bag.
Find more like him then & prosecute More
Where have all the patriots in our country gone??? Every week we hear of another person who has committed TREASON against our country. This use to be punished by death and it still should be!! And how many disgusting families that have stolen, lied and back-stabbed we the people are we going to find? And it seems they are ALL Democrats. They do not deserve to be in the White House again for a long, long time!! Lock them all up for the rest of their lives…..all of them even if they are old and sick. They do not deserve to be living free.
You think American Joe would have had his charges declined?
Life prison sentence for this corrupt , treasonous loser.
Just another reason to stop reforming around on an organization that is as corrupt as the organized crime syndicates it was supposed to fight. Time to save the taxpayer some real money and can this law enforcement agency that keeps forgetting what it’s job is supposed to be, and have its powers be returned to the states.
America was in a VERY bad place under the Democrats.
I am so tired of these American officials selling out their own country to our adversaries. In truth it IS treason. But what can you expect when we see the President (as in Biden and family) grifting China and other foreign entities? And when Bill and Hillary Clinton set up a “foundation” that was accused of being a pay for play scheme more than a charity, supposedly taking in lots of foreign money? These people are role models for others without any integrity or ethics, willing to risk it all for personal wealth, the country be damned..
He should be charged with Treason
We may not know details such as the names of treasonous FBI & CIA agents but anyone who was alive in the 1990s in the U.S. knows that the Clintons were not only corrupt but just plain old crooks. Hillary was implicated in about 40 murders of people who could have testified against them in just one of their criminal ‘deals’. The criminal activity was much talked about. It dominated the news. The news media gave it a “****Gate” name that I don’t remember but a search of newspaper archives would have it. It was a criminal land deal in Arkansas. There can NOT be a living person in this country that doesn’t know what Hillary is. That is just one reason to have an extreme low opinion of Democrat voters.
Charles McGonigal, thank you for your service. Signed, The Chinese Communist Party.
Surely he has lost any retirement he may of had?
And next week this will be old news and forgotten by all!
I wonder if any of the ones named in the article were investigated?
Why does AMAC tolerate the juvenilistic, deliberate intrusions by so-called commercial
messengers when serious matters are being presented, read and reviewed by the commentariat? Get them out!
How many people were included on Joe Biden’s autopen pardons list so they would never testify against Joe, Hunter, or James Biden? No doubt, Joe was aware of and did approve those names being on the list.
Just another greedy useful idiot. A very foolish man!
Democrats – the best leadership money can by.
Why are you taking up space with your scam job offering.
Details Fred. Details. Name calling isn’t proof.