In September, Washington Examiner national security writer and editor Tom Rogan questioned the Biden administration’s “strange tolerance” for the apparent corruption of the Albanian government. Rogan wrote , “Compelling evidence suggests that [Albanian Prime Minister Edi] Rama may be directly involved in a narcotrafficking alliance between Albanian mobsters and the Mexico-based Sinaloa cartel.”
Not only has the Biden administration turned a blind eye to the malfeasance of Rama’s government, but in May 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken targeted Rama’s enemy, former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha. He designated Berisha as ineligible to travel to the U.S. “due to his involvement in significant corruption.”
The New York Post described Berisha as “the anti-Communist ally of Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush , who has been in opposition for eight years, and who is a vocal opponent of [George] Soros and his Open Society Foundations, which has been pushing judicial and electoral ‘reform’ in Albania.”Citing a report in the Mexican newspaper El Universal, Rogan detailed the corruption of Rama’s government and concluded that he “appears to be involved in a narcotrafficking conspiracy involving the Sinaloa cartel. That is to say, the cartel responsible for the largest share of narcotics smuggling into the United States. And for whatever reason, the Biden administration does not appear terribly bothered by this.”
Even more disturbing, Rama appears to have been associated with the recently indicted former FBI special agent Charles McGonigal, CEFC China Energy, and Soros’s leftist Open Society Foundations, according to Fox News’s Dan Bongino.
McGonigal (who was involved in the Russiagate hoax against former President Donald Trump) was arrested earlier this month at New York’s JFK Airport and charged in two separate indictments. The retired head of counterintelligence at the FBI ’s New York Field Office, McGonigal has been accused of taking money from an associate of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. In Washington, D.C., McGonigal is alleged to have received “$225,000 in secret cash payments” from a former Albanian intelligence agent, according to the New York Times.
The indictment claims McGonigal opened a criminal investigation at the New York Field Office “into foreign lobbying in which the former Albanian intelligence employee, who was not named in the indictment, provided information as a confidential informant,” the New York Times reported.
Specifically, the indictment states: “8. Person B was an Albanian national who was employed by a Chinese energy conglomerate. Person B operated as an informal advisor to the Prime Minister of Albania, … and was a former Albanian senior government official.”
The Chinese energy conglomerate is presumed to be CEFC China Energy, a now-bankrupt company that had close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and a long history of bribing foreigners into doing the CCP’s bidding.
Just ask Hunter Biden, who had relationships with several of CEFC’s top executives. The 3.16-carat diamond the company’s former chairman, Ye Jianming, bestowed upon Hunter was just the beginning. Ultimately, CEFC would pay Hunter and James Biden nearly $5 million through various business ventures.
Like CEFC, George Soros was also trying to buy influence in Albania. In April 2018, government watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained Obama administration documents via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development that showed U.S. taxpayer funds were sent to a Soros-backed group “to fund left-wing activities in Albania.”
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said at the time: “The Obama administration quietly spent at least $9 million in U.S. taxpayers’ dollars in direct collusion with left-wing billionaire George Soros’s backing of a socialist government in Albania.” The USAID claimed the purpose of the project was “to increase citizens’ trust in the [Albanian] judiciary and a more efficient judicial system.” Fitton maintains it was done to gain “greater control of the [Albanian] judiciary system.”
According to Bongino, the Obama administration also sent U.S. taxpayer funds to support a similar Soros scheme in Ukraine, a subject he details in his 2020 book titled, Follow the Money: The Shocking Deep State Connections of the Anti-Trump Cabal.
At any rate, why would the Biden administration sanction the anti-communist Berisha while ingratiating itself with Rama, whose corrupt Albanian government is working with a Mexican cartel to smuggle dangerous drugs that are killing 100,000 Americans every year?
And why was a high-ranking FBI official taking money from an Albanian national who was working for a CCP-tied company?
In his September article, Rogan asked why the Biden administration was "playing so nice with Rama's regime." In light of McGonigal’s arrest and Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, Rogan’s question is even more relevant today.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICAElizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal . Her articles have appeared at MSN, RedState, Newsmax, the Federalist, and RealClearPolitics. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn .