"That Name Keeps Coming Up...."
Why is one agent at the crossroads of so many of our present controversies?
There’s a name at the crossroads of much of the skullduggery in America’s headlines for years now — “Russian collusion,” “the laptop from hell,” “Hunter’s foreign friends.” Yet I doubt very many know it.
He’s Charlie McGonigal. And we’re about to lose perhaps our last opportunity to find out what he knows.
And he probably knows a lot.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. McGonigal, he is the former “SAC” (Special-Agent-in-Charge — an unfortunate acronym that J. Edgar should’ve foreseen) of FBI New York’s Foreign Counterintelligence Unit. McGonigal was indicted last year in Washington, D.C. on charges related to his receipt of $225,000 from an Albanian agent. He was later also indicted in New York — by his former squad! — on charges of sanctions-evasion and money laundering based on his relationship with notorious Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. He has since pled guilty in both cases.
So what’s Charlie got to do with Trump and Hunter?
According to the reports, it was McGonigal who triggered the investigation into Donald Trump’s “Russian collusion” — an investigation which failed more soundly and often than a Buffalo sports franchise.
As for Hunter: His main contact with the Chinese government was Patrick Ho (representative in the U.S. for Chinese oil company CEFC). It was McGonigal’s squad that convicted Ho in 2019 on influence-peddling charges. Yet strangely, Ho was never flipped against Hunter (this while DOJ had an open investigation of Hunter).
And despite the fact that Hunter and his uncle Jim were reportedly on the FBI wiretaps of Ho — to the tune of $30 million.
Instead, Ho went to jail for only about a year on a three year sentence — and was then quietly repatriated to Hong Kong.
(Patrick Ho — you’d be smiling too if you only did 1/3 of your federal sentence…)
Charlie McGonigal — who, full disclosure, this writer crossed paths with professionally — is to be sentenced Thursday of this week. The prosecution is asking for the harshest sentence of five years.
Hey, I’ve got an idea: How about a reduced sentence in return for testifying in the ongoing case against Hunter?
Didn’t think so.
Meanwhile, the question remains: What’s on those wiretaps? And will Representative Comer’s committee ever ask for them? Because clearly David Weiss has not.
For more background on all this, see our prior substack here. But to be honest — you’ll just get more frustrated.
In the meantime, the OpsDesk is going to file a FOIA request for a transcription of the Patrick Ho wire. We expect a response sometime around 2045.
With redactions.
The Hunter Chronicles, Part MCXXIV
So with Hunter’s recent tax indictment, his subpoena to appear before the House, his painful presser while avoiding said subpoena, and his likely criminal referral for Contempt of Congress… it’s been a busy few days for the First Junkie. But there are a few important points worth adding to all the reporting he’s inspired thus far.
Hunter’s refusal to respond to the subpoena creates something of a constitutional crisis — and one that has become increasingly common in recent years. In short: Who enforces a Congressional subpoena? By statute, it goes to DOJ — but what happens when DOJ itself won’t enforce (which could happen here)? Some speculate that Congress would turn to the House Sergeant-at-Arms.
Technically, the House Sergeant-at-Arms is a member of the Capitol Police — and therefore, a federal law enforcement officer. But the mechanism hasn’t been used in modern times (Congress codified all this in 1857).
So: Will we see Sergeant William McFarland putting Hunter Biden in cuffs at some point?
(House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland)
Stranger things have happened. I just can’t think of any.
We don’t expect this to occur, despite how interesting it would be. Chances are, Hunter will ultimately appear, in some form — and then take the Fifth.
As we’ve written in this space before, the President will ultimately pardon Hunter when he has to — Hunter won’t go to jail, there’s too much risk he’ll flip. And at-present, the charges Hunter faces are of the sort that won’t cause the outcry that certain other charges might. The gun charge was really a “lying-on-a-federal-form” charge. And when it comes to taxes… well, no one likes paying them. So if Hunter pays another tax fine, much of the electorate will hastily move past this.
The point: Weiss is still, for all the sturm and drang, going easy on Hunter. Not until we see evidence of a true FARA investigation (that is, unregistered foreign agent) or of potential bribery charges (like the FCPA) will this writer believe the prosecution “continues to investigate.”
And the eternally smug Jake Tapper — who never made a case in his life — can laugh about that all he wants. But were Hunter’s last name “Tapper,” he’d be doing federal time already. Likely sitting next to Patrick Ho.
Are we not supposed to notice a basic fact: Hunter, who is now facing a gun charge as well as three counts related to major tax evasion, was just a few months ago offered a sweetheart no-jail deal covering all of this?
Weiss’s team had all the same information then — recall that this case has been going on since 2018.
Now that we see the contours of the tax case (thanks to the lurid indictment), and the fact that Hunter is de facto guilty of the gun charge: What possible rationale could Weiss have for having offered that deal?
This is Stephen Hovanic — a reportedly “high-ranking” Pentagon official, arrested on a “pandering” charge (that is, soliciting a prostitute). This was widely reported as a “human trafficking” case.
Fair enough. But if that’s the case: Where is the “human trafficking” investigation of Hunter? Are all the progressives who’ve been holding to the “nothing to see here” line (that would be you, Dan Goldman) okay with Hunter’s spending nearly $900k on prostitutes?
And here’s a guy who could order up an eight-ball of coke in the middle of the night in any major city he flopped in. He reportedly spent well-over $1,000-per-day on drugs, for years (and that’s what we know about). Well over a million bucks on various illegal drugs.
Have those narco leads been cut to DEA? LAPD? NYPD narcotics?
We Hear…
From several disparate sources that NYC Mayor Eric Adams will be indicted before year’s end. To the point that the next-in-line, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, is lining up his personnel moves. This writer has yet to see evidence that rises anywhere near to that level. But judging by Adams’s demeanor here… it ain’t looking good.
That close Adams associate and Deputy Mayor For Public Safety Phil Banks ( an unindicted co-conspirator in a previous police scandal) may be out on an official leave-of-absence. Unknown if his retreat is related to the current Adams investigation. But the police rumor mill is churning, big-time.
Meanwhile, as Adams laments the financial strain the migrant crisis has (undoubtedly) inflicted on NYC — to the point that he’s cancelled the next five NYPD Academy classes — there’s this: since taking office, Adams has started at least 10 new city agencies.
By my count, he’s up to about 12 now (including this ludicrous fail). And all these agencies need employee benefits, pensions, cars, office space, computers, liability insurance….
This, after Adams’s predecessor, Bill de Blasio, enlarged NYC government by roughly 325,000 workers — to its highest ever. Even The New York Times found it excessive — and wrote that Eric Adams might have to “rein it in.”
He didn’t. So who are all these employees? And what on earth are they doing?
As I’ve stated on-air: The migrant crisis is indeed hurting the city. But blaming them for all the city’s current woes is a smokescreen.
The Stars Have Aligned In Gemini
News comes now that Tony Senter, member of one of the most notoriously bloodthirsty mafia crews the city’s ever seen, is about to be paroled from his life sentence in federal prison.
(Anthony Senter — NYPD booking photo. He had a few….)
Senter, along with compatriot Joey Testa, was one-half of the infamous “Gemini Twins” — members of the Gambino crew headed by the notorious Roy DeMeo (whose crew is believed to be responsible for upwards of 200 killings in the 70’s and 80’s).
The gang was known for carrying out murders in the back of the Gemini Lounge bar in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, then carving up and bleeding out the bodies before disposing of them in a landfill.
The Gemini was as creepy a place as you could imagine. How do I know? I was there as a kid.
Back then, common in Brooklyn were “bar leagues” — that is, softball teams which represented taverns. The teams were sponsored by the saloons, providing money generally for jerseys and maybe hats. In return, losers of a game were obliged to go drink in the winning team’s bar after the game (which was an easy enough sell).
From a conversation with one of my uncles: “Oh God. The place just had the creepiest feel. You walked in, it was dark and quiet and you drew stares. It was just off. Like one of those places that time forgot. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”
To be honest, I only have the vaguest memory of it (I was just a tagalong, in early grade school). But I doubt anyone complained about warm beer.
Btw: the Gemini Lounge building now? “The Flatlands Church of God.”
I kid you not.
And finally…
Um, as the old saying goes, if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging….
(click the image for the video)
I think we know one cop who got some DWI overtime.
