Lajme flash
After mocking Trump, a photo of Rama with McGonigal in his office at the Prime Minister's Office appears for the first time
2025-10-03 13:11:43 / POLITIKË
Not even 24 hours have passed since Rama's jokes about President Donald Trump and immediately from the United States came a bitter "reaction" to our Prime Minister. For the first time, a photo of Charles McGonigal, the former head of the FBI's counterintelligence office in New York, currently imprisoned in Edi Rama's office in the Prime Minister's office, has been published. This is likely their first meeting on September 9, 2017.
The fact that McGonigal and Rama met together at the prime minister's office is not new news. This has been confirmed in the FBI file and has been admitted by Rama himself. The meeting was facilitated by Rama's former advisor Dorian Duçka and former SHIK agent Agron Neza. At this meeting, oil licenses in the south of the country were discussed and it was here that the friendship between Edi Rama and McGonigal was born.
The FBI file that led to Charles McGonigal's imprisonment states that he sent this photo to a friend, telling him that Edi Rama was reforming justice in his country and that this presented "many opportunities." It is not known what Charles McGonigal meant by "many opportunities."
It was from this moment shown in the photo that a close relationship of interest began between McGonigal and Rama, as the former was interested in the relocation of oil extraction licenses to the south, while Rama was interested in an FBI investigation of Lulzim Basha, for the money paid for lobbying in the US.
In the indictment that sentenced McGonigal to 2 years in prison in Washington, paragraph 22 states that: “ On September 9, 2017, in Albania, Defendant McGonigal met with Person B and the Prime Minister of Albania. At the request of Person A, Defendant McGonigal urged the Prime Minister of Albania to be cautious in granting licenses for oil fields in Albania to Russian companies. Person A and Person B both had a financial interest in the government’s decision to grant licenses for oil extraction.”
But how does Rama describe the meeting? The Albanian Prime Minister initially denies discussing oil licenses or specific companies. In a response that he repeated more or less the same way in four interviews, Rama said that the conversation had been general about Russian influence, even calling it a "general friendly conversation."
"He told me that his work focuses on Russian influence as a whole, he talked to me about the region, where Russian influence is present, while in Albania it is non-existent," Rama said in an interview with Grida Duma on Top Channel.
"He did not talk to me about any kind of business in favor of other people," the prime minister added during the interview.
Interestingly, the photo was posted by George Papadopoulos, Trump's former foreign policy adviser during the 2016 campaign. He took issue with Rama's remarks at yesterday's summit, mocking Trump's confusion between Albania and Armenia.
“Charles McGonigal is pictured here with the Albanian Prime Minister while he was accepting bribes. He was also running the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation with Comey at the same time. He is now in prison. Will he be overthrown too?” Papadoupolos writes, referring to Rama.
Meanwhile, below, a comment by Allison Guerrero, Charles McGonigal's ex-girlfriend, stands out, saying that she once had this photo but was forced to delete it from social media.
“Almost 2 years later, when I was served my first subpoena in this case for the DDC investigation, FBI agents came to my house, showed me the post I had made, and asked me about it. However, the post no longer existed on my page. I was forced to delete it. Charlie and I went to court about it, so it’s in those court records. He used it in a civil proceeding against me when he filed a restraining order. I didn’t even know anyone else had this photo,” Guerrero writes.
It is still not known how this photo ended up on social networks, but as Charles McGonigal's ex-girlfriend says, it is certain that FBI agents had it in their hands. While the video of Edi Rama publicly mocking Donald Trump the day before went viral on the social network X, and some Democrats even used it to attack Trump. It is certain that that video and the jokes of the Albanian Prime Minister have irritated many people across the Atlantic.
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