Giuliani went on to boast of his close friendships with retired FBI agents, and though he denied having a role in Comey’s Oct. “I’m talking about some pretty big surprise,” he added. On 26 October, Rudy Giuliani told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum that Trump had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next two days.” Having worked as section chief for the Cyber-Counterintelligence Co-ordination Section at FBI headquarters during the height of Russian hacking around the looming election, McGonigal was named by the FBI’s then director, James Comey, as special agent in charge of the Counterintelligence division for the New York Field Office on 4 October 2016.Ī few weeks later, close Trump ally and former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, started dropping hints on Fox News about information coming from the FBI field office. ![]() The Clinton Emails and the ‘Comey Effect’ Within weeks of McGonigal’s promotion to the new position in early October, the New York Field Office took centre stage as part of a scandal involving alleged leaks that ultimately forced then-FBI Director James Comey to go public with information about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails barely over a week before Election Day - a decision that radically altered the course of the 2016 campaign and may have swung the election in Trump’s favour.Īlthough we don’t yet know whether or to what extent McGonigal may have been aware of or involved in these events, the allegation that one of the FBI’s most senior counterintelligence officials - who was tasked with overseeing some of the agency’s most sensitive and top-secret investigations - may have been secretly taking money from the Russian oligarchs he was supposed to have been investigating raises serious questions about his role in a series of events that, more than six years later, remains among the most pressing national security issues facing the United States. McGonigal, who has denied charges of money laundering and violating economic sanctions against Russia, was also a key figure in the FBI’s Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section prior to being tapped to lead the counterintelligence division at the FBI’s New York Field Office a few weeks before the end of the presidential campaign. Steele told Byline Times that McGonigal had the opportunity to influence both “Trump-Russia and the (re-opened) Hillary Clinton email investigations in 2016, arguably two of the most politically consequential ones in US history.” The case, which is still unfolding, has particularly concerned the former British intelligence officer and Russia expert, Christopher Steele, author of the ‘Steele Dossier’ on Donald Trump and his Kremlin connections which was passed on to the FBI’s New York in the summer of 2016. News that a senior FBI official Charles McGonigal has been indicted for taking payments from sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and then trying to conceal those payments, raises deeply disturbing questions about the investigations he oversaw as head of counterintelligence at the FBI’s New York Field Office during the tumultuous 2016 presidential election, Russian Interference Byline Times leads the way in exposing the anti-democratic influence of the Kremlin over the affairs of other nations.Cronyism and Corruption Byline Times uncovers the nepotism that greases the wheels of British politics.The Coronavirus Crisis Byline Times exposes the Government’s dangerous ‘herd immunity’ approach towards the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as how incompetence and conspiracies contributed to the UK’s shocking death toll.Identity, Empire and the Culture War Byline Times explores the weaponisation of Britain’s past as a key tool in a dark project of division and distraction.The Crisis in British Journalism Byline Times investigates media monopolies, their proximity to politicians, and how the punditocracy doesn’t hold power to account.The Cost of Living Crisis Byline Times investigates the causes and consequences of Britain’s biggest recession for 30 years.Democracy in Danger The newspaper’s extensive reporting and analysis of the various threats to democracy from populism, oligarchy, dark money and online disinformation.The Climate Emergency Byline Times‘ coverage of the consequences of, and responses to, the climate crisis.Culture History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity. ![]() Reportage Immersive and current news, informed by frontline reporting and real-life accounts. ![]()
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