FBI Official Who Helped Launch Trump-Russia Probe Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Work with Russian Oligarch

A former FBI counterintelligence chief who played a pivotal role in launching the Trump-Russia probe was sentenced to just over four years in prison for assisting a sanctioned Russian oligarch after leaving his post in 2019.

In August, Charles McGonigal, a 22-year veteran of the bureau’s field office in New York, was found guilty of a count of conspiracy for working with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. During his stint with the bureau, McGonigal received classified information that Deripaska would be designated a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, the indictment alleged. McGonigal was legally obligated to inform the FBI of his relationship with foreign officials, which he violated by continuing communication and establishing business ties with Deripaska.

Judge Jennifer Rearden argued that McGonigal “repeatedly flouted and manipulated the sanctions regimes vital” to American security interests. “The undeniable seriousness of this and the need to respect the law,” Rearden continued, “compels a meaningful custodial sentence.”

The FBI official admitted during the hearing that he has a “deep sense of remorse and sorrow for my actions.”

“I, more than anyone, know that I have committed a felony and as a former FBI special agent it causes me extreme mental, emotional and physical pain – not to mention the shame I feel in embarrassing myself and the FBI, the organization I love and respect,” McGonigal told Reardon. “I’m humbly asking for a second chance.”

However, the prosecution demanded that Reardon throw the book at McGonigal and pressed for a maximum sentence of five years. “How much would that be worth to them? Our enemies have guns, and they know where to buy more. What they do not have is the rule of law. We do. That is what McGonigal tried to sell,” Hagan Scotten, one of the prosecutors, argued. “Poverty did not motivate this crime, your honor. Greed did. It was a betrayal.”

In January, McGonigal was indicted on several charges, including conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, and violating federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals by helping Deripaska. McGonigal pled not guilty at the time and was released on a $500,000 bond.

As the former chief of counterintelligence in the bureau’s New York field office, McGonigal was among the first FBI officials to be notified that former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was aware that Russia had obtained a trove of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

McGonigal eventually relayed this to the FBI in July 2016, with his note playing a crucial role in instigating a case into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. The resulting investigation, conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, failed to produce sufficient evidence to prove then-President Trump’s guilt. The probe lasted 22 months and reportedly cost over $30 million.

McGonigal is expected to surrender to authorities to begin serving his sentence in late February.