Balla claims she met former McGonigal agent

The chairman of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, Taulant Balla, during a communications with reporters today, has declared that he himself has met former FBI intelligence director Charles McGonigal.

McGonial, is accused of supporting a Russian oligarch sanctioned by the United States of America, but also of taking bribes from a former Albanian secret service agent.

Balla said she has only met him at work and that there is no responsibility for the charges against him. From the other side, Balla raised speculation that McGonigal has also met with opposition members.

I have also met where we have shared and discussed in the function of excellent relations between the US and Albania. No one would say no to such a meeting in the quality of that official position, have been meetings of the form of co-operation during the time he was on duty, after that time I haven't met him. No Albanian authority is held accountable in this story as long as it is under a working meeting. We've recently communicated with the FBI on cyberattacks, imagine if someone was arrested by the FBI now? He may also have met members of the opposition, I don't know how to ask”, Balla said, Top-Channel reports.

On 24 January it became known that the former chief of FBI counterintelligence was arrested in New York on grave charges of supporting a Russian oligarch sponsored by the United States, but also that he received bribes from a former Albanian secret service agent. Charles McGonigal worked for the FBI's counterintelligence sector until he left the FBI in September 2018 and also covered Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He is accused of receiving $225 thousand from a former employee of Albania's secret services, and has held several meetings with businessmen and politicians in Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia, but without reporting them under the rules.