Business Insider today releases an FBI Whistleblower report, that if true, is mind boggling in its implications. You can read the someone redacted statement from the FBI whistleblower HERE. It’s worth noting that, unlike some of the of Republican putative “whistleblowers” this one has followed the proper administrative and statutory procedures for whistleblowers. It’s also clear he is not a malcontent hack recruited (and even paid) by one side for testimony they need against a political opponent.
The whistleblower’s more widely reported allegations are serious enough. Essentially he claims that he was investigating ties between Rudy Giuliani, and potentially other FBI agents, with Russian Intelligence Services and these investigations were suppressed. One of the other FBI agents turns out to be Charles McGonigal, the former head for Counterintelligence in the FBI’s Southern District of New York. McGonigal was charged with laundering money from Russian oligarchs and accepting bribes.
The whistleblower concludes that he does not know why he has been singled out for adverse administrative actions but:
“my strong suspicion is that one or more of my sources provided truthful, accurate information that is harmful to a person or persons that persons in the Bureau are trying to shield.”
In the context of the statement those persons being shielded would include Giuliani and other FBI agents. So by this whistleblower’s allegations suggest that Trump appointee Christopher Wray’s FBI is still shielding Giuliani. Indeed, Giuliani’s strong ties with Russian Intelligence is a major theme in the whistleblower statement.
Of equal interest are suggestions starting on p. 5 that the entire Hunter Biden/Burisma scandal was manufactured by the Russian Intelligence. The whistleblower details potential multi-billion dollar schemes aimed at “political adversaries” to the then ruling party in America. In the words of the whistleblower:
“One of the alleged scenarios involved Hunter Biden (Hunter) had been given a lucrative position on the board of directors energy company, Bursima Holding Limited (Burisma), and was likely involved in unreported lobbying and/or tax evasion . . . I expressed skepticism since the scenarios described appeared only to target prominent business and politicians who were his [name previously redacted] political rivals. I suspected at this time that this could have been an attempt by RIS [Russian Intelligence Services] to push derogatory information into the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) that would give the opposing political party, which had shown to be favored by the RIS, a narrative to attack Joseph R. Biden (Biden) if he became the Democratic presidential nominee, which did in fact occur several months later. In fact, the derogatory information concerning the Bidens and Burisma quickly emerged in domestic U.S. media, suggesting that it was being provided for political influence rather than law-enforcement purposes.” ¶ 12.
It’s notable that as the whistleblower passed this up to other FBI agents they were mostly interested in “allegation’s of Hunter’s involvement with drugs and prostitution.” They were not interested in the whole Burisma/Hunter scandal being a Russian Intelligence op.
I am skeptical of anonymous whistleblowers who generally fail to be able to identify who is supposedly persecuting them, and this person is one of those. Even so, he comes across as more credible than any of the Republican recruited (and sometimes paid) FBI whistleblowers. Surely even Republicans must acknowledge his claims must be investigated? Or not.