Authorities arrest Steele dossier contributor Igor Danchenko
An analyst who was the key source behind the shady “Steele dossier” about former President Donald Trump and Russia was arrested Thursday on charges he lied to the FBI regarding his sources — one of whom was an associate of Hillary Clinton.
Igor Danchenko, 43, was busted as part of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe, which Trump has long insisted was a witch hunt.
Danchenko, a Russian citizen living in Virginia, was a primary source for Christopher Steele, the former British spy who was paid by Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign for intelligence examining ties between Russia and Trump.
The dossier of unverified opposition research included the wild claim that Russian security services possessed a tape of Trump in a Moscow hotel room with prostitutes who were supposedly urinating on a bed where the Obamas had previously stayed.
Danchenko later admitted to the FBI that the scandalous detail — like much of his info in the report — was based on “rumor and speculation.”
Many of his other allegations, such as the claim that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague to meet Russian intel operatives, have been subsequently disproven.
Despite its murky sourcing, the research was used by the feds between October 2016 and September 2017 to successfully apply for surveillance warrants targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
According to a five-count indictment unsealed Thursday, FBI agents interviewed Danchenko several times between January and November 2017 as they attempted to vet the materials.
The FBI “was ultimately not able to confirm or corroborate” most of the substantive allegations contained in the dossier, the court document notes.
It charges Danchenko with making false statements to investigators on at least five occasions regarding the sources behind his dubious intel.
For instance, the feds say Danchenko claimed never to have spoken to a certain unnamed PR executive — and longtime Democratic party operative — about specific allegations contained in the report.
In fact, Danchenko used the Democrat as an anonymous source for one or more of the claims contained in the dossier, according to the indictment — including gossip about the resignation of Paul Manafort as Trump’s campaign chairman and his alleged “strained relationship” with another aide, believed to be Corey Lewandowski.
The individual is not named in court papers, but his lawyer, Ralph Drury Martin, confirmed his identity to The Associated Press as Chuck Dolan, a former executive director of the Democratic Governors Association who advised Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and volunteered in her 2016 bid.
The Clinton ally’s role in feeding Danchenko information would have been important for the FBI to know since it pertained to his “reliability, motivations, and potential bias as a source,” the court papers state.
Danchenko’s alleged lies about the exec — who isn’t named in the indictment — was also “highly material” to the FBI, since the person was “present at places and events” where the analyst collected information, the indictment states.
The charging document specifically refers to the salacious pee-tape allegation, which Trump has forcefully denied. Danchenko claimed to the FBI that he collected that information from “various sources,” including a manager at the Moscow hotel, but that he had characterized it to Steele as “rumor and speculation” and didn’t himself know if it was true.
Danchenko in June 2016 had lunch in Moscow with the exec, who was staying at the same hotel. The indictment says that the exec toured the presidential suite, and that while a hotel staffer told him Trump had stayed there, the worker did not mention any obscene activity.
The researcher — a former analyst at the Brookings Institution think-tank — is also accused of lying about interactions he claimed to have had with the then-president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. That person isn’t named in the court papers, but has been identified in reports as Sergei Millian.
Danchenko allegedly told the FBI he received an anonymous phone call in July 2016 from a person he believed to be Millian, who told him about a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. That allegation was included in the dossier.
“In truth and fact, and as Danchenko well knew, Danchenko never received such a phone call or such information,” the charging doc states. “Danchenko fabricated these facts.”
These falsehoods mattered because the FBI “devoted substantial resources attempting to investigate and corroborate the allegations” and had “relied in large part” on the information in the dossier to obtain the surveillance warrants, the indictment says.
Danchenko is now the third person to face criminal charges in Durham’s probe.
The special counsel was appointed by Trump’s Justice Department in May 2019 after the president said the investigation into his purported campaign ties to Russia was a witch hunt.
Although special counsel Robert Mueller ultimately found questionable ties between Trump’s campaign and Moscow, there was not enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.
Danchenko made his initial appearance in Alexandria, Virginia, court Thursday afternoon on five counts of making false statements to the FBI.
Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered pretrial release on $100,000 unsecured bail. Danchenko’s defense attorney indicated his client would plead not guilty.
He could face up to five years in prison on each count if convicted.
With Post wires
