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Even though Ducka "shut up" his mouth, the suspicions are that SPAK has opened the "McGonigal" file, leaving Prime Minister Edi Rama without sleep.
Dorian Ducka left the Special Prosecutor's Office after 4 hours.
The character of the "McGonigal" file was questioned today by SPAK, as he preferred not to tell the reason he was presented there. He entered SPAK at 15.00 and left at 19.00.
Asked if the prosecutors requested his testimony about the "McGonigal" file, he said: " They can ask the Department of Justice in America ." He also denied being asked about the CEZ file, given that he was deputy minister at the time.
Even though Ducka "shut up" his mouth, the suspicions are that SPAK has opened the "McGonigal" file, leaving Prime Minister Edi Rama without sleep. Ducka is his adviser and the prime minister himself has accepted it, as his name appears in the FBI file where 250 thousand dollars were paid to Charles McGonigal. Altin Dumani himself had an informal meeting with journalists a few days ago and gave signals that there will be developments regarding this file.
As for the "McGonigal" scandal, the former FBI agent worked for the counterintelligence sector of the FBI, until he left the FBI in September 2018 and, among other things, covered Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is accused of having received 225,000 dollars from a former employee of the secret services of Albania and having held a series of meetings with businessmen and politicians in Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia, but without reporting them according to the rules. According to the indictment document, during a trip to Albania in 2017, "on September 9, the defendant McGonigal met with the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Dorian Dučka (Person A) at the request of Agron Neza (Person B), he called the prime minister to be careful and not to grant a license for oil exploration in Albania to a Russian shell company.
Persons A and B had financial interests from the decision of the Albanian government. Defendant McGonigal gave the Prime Minister an FBI souvenir in the presence of Person B." The indictment establishes a direct link between the former FBI official's meetings with the Albanian prime minister in the presence of third parties A and B, who were private citizens. It is unclear why the prime minister met with a senior FBI official in the presence of private individuals.
Meanwhile, on September 22, Charles McGonigal pleaded guilty to accepting $225,000 from Albanian-American Agron Nezaj, who, according to court documents, became an informant for the FBI's investigation into his contacts and meetings in Albania.
The guilty plea was made in federal court in Washington, based on a deal between prosecutors and Mr. McGonigal's lawyers. He pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment, that of hiding material evidence, and prosecutors dropped the other eight counts.
Each point of the indictment contains several accusations.
The settlement means the case will not go to trial. This also means that no further data on this matter will be made public.
Mr. McGonigal accepted all the charges related to Albania, including contacts with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama and the unofficial adviser to the Prime Minister, Dorian Ducka.
Asked by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly if on Nov. 25, he had "informed the Justice Department Attorney ... of a possible criminal investigation into a US citizen who had registered to lobby 'for a party that was not Prime Minister Rama', Mr. McGonigal answered "Yes".
Mr. McGonigal had received information about this lobbyist from Mr. Ducka.
The indictment does not identify the American lobbyist nor the Albanian party. But on November 14, 2017, lobbyist Nick Muzin filed with the Department of Justice, albeit late, the documents on the lobbying activity of a few months ago on behalf of the DP, which has subsequently become the subject of an investigation in Albania for the origin of money.
On February 26, 2018, the FBI's New York office officially opens investigations focused on the American lobbyist at the request and under the direction of Mr. McGonigal.
During the hearing, Mr. McGonigal admitted that he had established the connections and contacts in Albania through a friend of his, referring to Neza, with the intention of preparing the ground for him to pursue business and profit opportunities in Albania after he left the FBI.
“Before I left the FBI in September 2018, I was planning to start a security consulting business with a friend. I knew that my contacts with the government and international relations could be useful for me when I later started the business", he said in court, referring to the contacts with the government of Albania.
He further added, as stated in both the indictment and the guilty plea, that he had not declared the 220,000 dollars he said he had borrowed from his friend and potential business partner, referring to Neza as he had not declared contacts with foreign citizens.
Mr. McGonigal admitted in the session the fact that he had met with Prime Minister Edi Rama several times starting from September 2017, starting with the first meeting on September 9 in the presence of Mr. Ducka who continues to appear as person B even in the document where an accusation of reduced.
Asked by the judge if after the trip in September 2017, he had maintained "an ongoing relationship with the Prime Minister of Albania and person B", Mr McGonigal replied "Yes".
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