Judge Shows Ex-FBI Spy Catcher Leniency After Feds Say He 'Betrayed His Country' to Help Putin 'Henchman'

A former FBI counterintelligence official was sentenced Thursday to a little more than four years in prison for aiding a sanctioned Russian oligarch who serves as a "henchman" for President Vladimir Putin.

Charles McGonigal, 55, received a less-than-maximum punishment from U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rearden after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge to avoid a trial that could have put him behind bars for 80 years.

Rearden said she showed leniency toward McGonigal, who faced up to five years, because of his "long, distinguished career as a law enforcement professional."

The judge noted that McGonigal had worked "both in the U.S. and high-risk areas abroad and said the sentence of four years, two months that she imposed in Manhattan was "modestly below" federal guidelines.

Federal prosecutors, who sought a maximum sentence, said the guidelines ranged from four years, nine months to five years.

Rearden also let McGonigal remain free on a $200,000 bond and told him to report to prison on Feb. 26.

McGonigal had tears welling in his eyes as he left court with his wife, Pamela McGonigal.

"Happy holidays to everybody," he told reporters.

His surrender date is after his scheduled sentencing in Washington, D.C., for secretly accepting $225,000 from an Albanian government official while working for the FBI.

McGonigal faces five years in that case, in which he also pleaded guilty.

In court papers filed earlier this month, prosecutors said McGonigal "abused the skills and influence his country entrusted him with by secretly working for the very threats he had previously protected it against."

The feds added: "One of America’s most ‘prestigious, important’ counterintelligence officials had betrayed his country and manipulated a sanctions regime vital to its national security."

McGonigal retired from the FBI in September 2018 after exploiting his job as head of the New York Counterintelligence Division to compile what authorities called a "Rolodex of rogues" from whom he could profit as a private citizen.

They included a crony of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian industrialist who's worth an estimated $2.4 billion and has interests that include aluminum, energy and construction, according to Forbes.

He's also described in court papers as a "notorious henchman of Vladimir Putin, sanctioned by multiple administrations for posing a threat to America’s national security."

In court Thursday, McGonigal's voice broke as read a prepared statement in which he asked for leniency and said he was "prepared to accept the consequences of my actions."

"I stand before you today with a deep sense of remorse and sorrow for my actions," he told the judge while sitting at the defense table.

McGonigal also said, “In taking responsibility, I recognize the pain, suffering that I have brought on my family, my wife, friends and former colleagues at the FBI. For this I am sorry."

Prosecutor Hagan Scotten argued for the maximum sentence, saying McGonigal had forsaken everything he once stood for.

“Our enemies have guns and they know where to buy more. What they do not have is the rule of law. We do," Scotten said.

"That is what McGonigal tried to sell. That is why his crime deserves the highest punishment this court can impose," he said.

Defense lawyer Seth DuCharme, a former acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, acknowledged that McGonigal made “a terrible decision to work for Deripaska."

"He breaks the law. He destroys his life. It’s a terrible, terrible decision," he said.

McGonigal's August 2021 deal with Deripaska paid $51,280 upfront and $41,790 a month for dirt on a rival Russian oligarch, Vladimir Potanin, to try to get him sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

But the scheme was broken up and McGonigal was arrested in January before pocketing the millions of dollars on which he'd planned, according to prosecutors.