17:57 25/01/2023
Prime Minister Edi Rama says that he has met with former senior FBI official McGonigal, who is under indictment in the US, but this investigation has nothing to do with him.
Speaking to the journalists after the meeting with the leaders of SP districts, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that the meeting he had with the senior FBI official does not affect him in relation to the investigation being carried out against McGonigal in the United States.
“This is a case investigated by the American judiciary, which does not issue decisions on murders without perpetrators or on murders by negligence or when murders are committed from the windows of state institutions. In this particular case, there is zero accusation and zero connection between the issue being discussed and me or the government of the Republic of Albania. Zero.
These are derivatives of the misreading here. The mention of the name as part of a meeting has nothing to do with the conclusions reached by the US investigation. So in the USA, an investigation was done and conclusions were drawn. You met a senior FBI official, I did. I met a senior FBI official, yes I did, but this is no reason to draw new conclusions looking from Tirana through the binoculars of the politics of perverting people and noise for noise, even more so in the conditions we are facing a new and shocking fact for January 21 and the request of the Minister of Justice and SP to open the investigation in the Special Prosecutor’s Office. And who will understand understands. Because I can’t comment on anything. Commenting on comments is pointless. I and the government of the Republic of Albania have nothing to do with the conclusion of the investigation for a secondary issue that came up on the way, while the main issue is a completely different issue“, said Prime Minister Edi Rama.
- As for an Albanian-American mentioned in the file, Mr. Agron Neza, Rama says that he met this person only in the presence of the senior FBI official. As for the second Albanian who is also mentioned in the file, Dorian Duçka, he says that he was the Deputy Minister of Energy in the Rama 1 Government during the coalition with LSI, and that Mr. Duçka worked for the Prime Minister without pay.
“The conclusion of the investigation and the beginning of the next phase of the process where the American investigators have submitted their investigation file has nothing of what you say. Absolutely no conclusion. Read the mentions carefully because there is absolutely no mention of such a thing. It says what one says and what the other says. The investigators say that the investigations have been completed, there is one accused of non-declaration and conflict of interest in relation to his Albanian-American friend from Tropoja whom I have known in the meeting with him and with whom I have had no other kind of relationship except this friendly relationship and these exchanges completely without any other interest with the senior FBI official. I spoke about Mr. Agro, who, I repeat, comes from the democratic movement, very close to the late Azem Hajdari, tribe with Besnik Mustafajn, undeniably honorable people, whom I have never met before, with whom I have never exchanged papers, no interest, but I have only met him in the presence of the senior FBI official. As for the other person, he was the Deputy Minister of Energy in the coalition of 2013 and then for some time he worked with me for free“, declared Rama.
- He gives these answers to the accusations of the opposition: “Why does the opposition use an investigation in the United States against us or against me, I am used to this. I’m fed up with such stories that only aim to scare people and create a climate of aggression, division, half-truths that are the biggest lies and I’d rather spend more time than I have given to the daily release of these to the stones that are thrown into the river and then let’s take them out, explain them, clarify them to do more work for the people, of course without cutting off the communication is not discussed. I’m more focused on concrete daily tasks than on communication because it’s really a political and media big brother climate where no one asks about anything, everyone shouts about sensational news regardless of whether it’s true or false, shouts about ‘likes’ ‘, ‘shareve’, I have no complaints about the others“.
- Regarding the report with the former senior FBI official, the Prime Minister said that he also met him at the FBI office in New York.
“I have spoken in the English language about the nature of the relationship and said a friendly report. But not a friend in the sense that I shared my life with him for many years. I met him several times, I met him in the most important office of the FBI in the USA, in the New York office, where he introduced me and other colleagues, where he gave me one of those hats, medals that in the political big brother appeared as eavesdropping equipment. He came to Albania, we met. My interest has been to exchange conversations, opinions related to those areas, he was a high-level expert, crime, corruption, then America, the Balkans, Albania, completely without any other relationship. I do not notify the American embassy when I meet Americans. It is the Americans who notify or do not notify the embassy. I met one of the top FBI officials. And I would meet any senior FBI official again if given the chance. And I have also met the President of the USA. The fact that the President of the United States was under investigation or may be under investigation has nothing to do with me or anyone we meet. We live in an area of the world where people care who you meet. So I met him and I’m very glad I met him. All this is an absurdity. I feel sorry for you but I don’t blame you because you are part of the companies you represent. There is absolutely nothing in the indictment relating to me or the government other than met here met there facts“.
- Rama emphasized that the indictment of American justice mentions the conflict of interest that the former senior FBI official McGonigal had in relation to a sum of money received from his friend Agron Neza.
“The American justice which has thoroughly investigated and charged the person and has a charge of conflict of interest in receiving a debt from his Albanian-American friend from Tropoja who live together in New York. What does this mean I had dinner“.
- Asked by journalists about the possibility of setting up a parliamentary investigative commission to investigate Rama’s connections with the former FBI official, as the opposition claims, the Prime Minister stated: “This matter has been investigated by the American judiciary and conclusions have been drawn. What will be investigated here? This is not a matter for the Parliament of Albania. If you say that American justice can be contested by the self-judgment of the pulpit or the seal, that is your choice. I have no retort, no controversy to make. I tell people here is the mirror of truth according to American justice”.
/broread