Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York office, stands silently as his attorney Seth Ducharme speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Federal Court after a court appearance on February 09, 2023 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A watchdog report released Thursday revealed that a jailed former FBI counterintelligence official tipped off a Chinese firm with business ties to James and Hunter Biden that it was under investigation.
The 23-page inspector general’s report says Charles McGonigal, the former special agent in charge of counterintelligence for the FBI in New York, told an associate of the China Energy Fund Committee that the company was under FBI investigation.
McGonigal engaged in “disgraceful conduct” and “intentionally damaged an important criminal case, violated the public trust, and compromised the integrity of the FBI,” the report found. “The betrayal infects the morale of those who serve the FBI with honor and integrity and undermines the public’s confidence in the FBI.”
McGonigal, known to his former co-workers as Charlie, pleaded guilty in 2023 to multiple crimes, including secretly working for a Russian oligarch. He is serving a six-year sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
The report does not say James Biden violated the law and does not mention Hunter Biden or suggest he was involved in McGonigal’s misconduct.
Attorneys who recently represented McGonigal and Hunter and James Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The China Energy Fund Committee ceased operating before 2020, according to public reports.
Biden business dealings
Previous reporting by NBC News and other investigations described extensive business dealings between the two Bidens and the China Energy Fund Committee, or CEFC.
A Senate report on Hunter Biden’s business dealings showed that a joint venture funded by CEFC and its chairman, Ye Jianming, called “Hudson West III” paid another company, Owasco P.C., $4,790,375.225. Public records in Washington, D.C., show that Owasco P.C. is controlled by Hunter Biden.
NBC News reported in 2022 that a review of the personal and corporate emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive yielded little information about any business he conducted on behalf of Hudson West III. Hunter Biden’s autobiography also doesn’t discuss his Chinese business dealings in any detail.
The inspector general’s report says the FBI team that investigated McGonigal’s leak to the CEFC associate also looked into whether James Biden played a role in tipping off anyone with ties to the firm.
Inquiries by James Biden
A retired Secret Service agent told the FBI that James Biden reached out to him in November 2017 “with a request to determine whether there was an arrest warrant” for Patrick Ho, a CEFC employee, the report says.
The inspector general’s report says hotel records show that James Biden was in Hong Kong on Nov. 12, 2017, and made calls to the retired Secret Service agent. The retired agent said that James Biden told him that “we have information from China that Ho may be arrested” and that Ho wanted to travel to the United States but was concerned about a potential warrant for his arrest there, the report says.
Ultimately, the retired Secret Service agent said, he told James Biden he couldn’t find an active arrest warrant for Ho but cautioned Biden “that because arrest warrants are ‘sensitive,’ negative database searches did not necessarily mean that a warrant did not exist.”
In testimony to Congress in February 2024, James Biden was asked whether he planned to inform Ho whether he was under FBI investigation or whether there was an indictment against him filed under seal with the court.
“Absolutely not,” Biden replied, adding that he was simply trying to determine whether it would be problematic for him and Hunter Biden to meet with Ho.
Ho arrived in the United States in December 2017, apparently believing he wasn’t at risk, but the FBI arrested him upon arrival. He was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to three years in prison for bribing or attempting to bribe officials in Africa as CEFC pursued business deals there.
Payments to Hunter Biden
Records provided by the Senate and emails on Hunter Biden’s hard drive show that Hudson West III sent a wire to a company called Hudson West, which wired Hunter Biden’s company, Owasco, $1 million in March 2019 with a memo line stating, “Dr Patrick Ho Chi Ping Representation.”
NBC News has reported that Hunter Biden never appeared on the docket in Ho’s case. No emails were found on his laptop that indicated he was involved in the legal strategy of Ho’s case or drafted any legal documents outside his suggestion of whom Ho should hire as a defense lawyer.
McGonigal leaked the CEFC investigation to a person identified in an indictment as a “former senior Albanian government official” and an employee of a “Chinese energy conglomerate.” The former senior Albanian government official then informed CEFC of the probe.
McGonigal himself provided much of the information for the report. His proffer was in November 2023 during the Biden administration.
The report says McGonigal hoped to put together a business deal with the former Albanian government official after he retired from the FBI.
