One of the contributors to a since-discredited dossier of claims concerning former President Donald Trump has been charged as part of spec...
One of the contributors to a since-discredited dossier of claims concerning former President Donald Trump has been charged as part of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
Igor Danchenko, a researcher for the document, was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI, according to The New York Times.
The indictment is the second brought by Durham’s investigation. A Justice Department release noted that the “Special Counsel’s investigation is ongoing” but provided few details.
In addition to wild claims about Trump’s behavior that grabbed headlines when the Democrat-funded dossier was leaked, some of its information was used by the FBI in opening its investigation into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016.
The indictment said Danchenko “stated falsely that he had never communicated with a particular U.S.-based individual — who was a long-time participant in Democratic Party politics and was then an executive at a U.S. public relations firm (‘PR Executive-I’) — about any allegations contained in the Company Reports.“In truth and in fact, and as Danchenko well knew, Danchenko sourced one or more specific allegations in the Company Reports anonymously to PR Executive-I.”
The Times said that the indictment appeared to describe Charles Dolan Jr., who chaired the Clinton-Gore campaigns in Virginia in 1992 and 1996 and worked in the State Department during the Clinton administration.
Dolan’s lawyer, Ralph Martin, said Dolan was the individual named, but that he would have no comment.
The indictment, which did not use Dolan’s name, said “PR Executive- I maintained historical and ongoing involvement in Democratic politics, which bore upon PR Executive-I’s reliability, motivations, and potential bias as a source of information.”
The indictment said Danchenko gathered information during “events in Moscow organized by PR Executive-I and others that Danchenko attended at PR Executive-1 ‘s invitation. “
The indictment said Danchenko’s “subsequent lie” about Dolan’s connection to his information “was highly material to the FBI’s investigation of these matters.”
Other parts of the indictment include the allegation that although Danchenko told the FBI he received a call from a source that led to claim there was a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, he had in fact received no such call.
The Times reported that Danchenko in a 2020 interview said his job was to get “raw intelligence” and pass that along to former British spy Christopher Steele. He also denied any espionage connection.
“I’ve never been a Russian agent,” Danchenko said. “It is ridiculous to suggest that. This, I think, it’s slander.”
In September, Durham secured the indictment of Michael Sussman, who has been accused of lying to the FBI.
Durham was appointed during the Trump administration to investigate the origins of the FBI probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. Investigations into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia blossomed into the long-running investigation of Robert Mueller, which in the end ruled there never had been any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
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