Steele dossier source acquitted, in loss for special counsel Durham
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Salvador Rizzo andRachel WeinerOctober 18, 2022 at 4:23 p.m. EDT Listen 6 min Comment on this storyComment Gift Article Share
A jury onTuesday found Igor Danchenko — a private researcher who was a primary source for a 2016 dossier of allegations about former president Donald Trump's ties to Russia — not guilty of lying to the FBI about where he got his information.
The verdict in federal court in Alexandria, Va., is another blow for special counsel JohnDurham, who has now lost both cases that have gone to trial as part of his nearly 3½-year investigation. Durham, who was asked by Attorney General William P. Barr in 2019 to review the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016,is sure to face renewed pressure to wrap up his work following the verdict.
Trump predicted Durham would uncover "the crime of the century" inside the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies that investigated his campaign's links to Russia. But so far,no one charged by the special counsel has gone to prison, and only one government employee has pleaded guilty to a criminal offense. In both trials this year, Durham argued that people deceived FBI agents, not that investigators corruptly targeted Trump.
The jury in Danchenko's case deliberated for about nine hours over two days. Juror Joel Greene said in an interview that there were no holdouts in the deliberations and that the decision was "pretty unanimous."
"We looked at everything really closely," said Greene, who declined to comment on the politics of the case. "The conclusion we reached was the conclusion we all were able to reach."
Durham, a longtime federal prosecutor who was U.S. attorney in Connecticut during the Trump administration, personally argued much of the government's case against Danchenko. The special counsel allegedDanchenko misled the FBI officials asking in 2017 about his sources, after the agency determinedthe researcher was the unnamed personbehind some of the most explosive allegations about Trump in reports compiledby former British spy Christopher Steele.
The trial could be Durham's last. A grand jury that the special counsel had been using in Alexandria is now inactive, people familiar with the matter have told The Washington Post, though the status of a similar panel in D.C. was not immediately clear.
Barr, reached by phone Tuesday afternoon after the jury announced its verdict, declined to comment. In a statement released by the Justice Department after the verdict, Durham said, "While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury's decision and thank them for their service. I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case."
A representative for Trump could not immediately be reached for comment.
After the verdict was announced, Danchenko choked up and embraced his defense attorney, Stuart A. Sears. Danchenko declined to comment, but Sears said outside the courthouse "we've known all along that Mr. Danchenko is innocent."
"We're happy now that the American public knows that as well," he said.
To win a conviction, Durham had to convince jurors both that Danchenko lied and that his deception had a "material" impact on the FBI's investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Defense attorneys argued that Danchenko believed what he was telling agents was true and that it was not a crime to give unsure answers to imprecise questions.
In May, a jury in D.C. federal court acquitted cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann, who also was accused by the special counsel of lying to the FBI. A former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was sentenced to one year of probation after admitting in a 2020 plea deal with Durham that he had altered a government email used to justify secret surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page.
After his investigation is complete, Durham will be required to write a report, butdeciding how much of it, if any, to release to the public would be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The indictment listed five charges against Danchenko for statements made to FBI investigators about whether his sources included a longtime Democratic public relations executive, Charles Dolan Jr., and Sergei Millian, a former president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga dismissed the charge related to Dolan before the case went to the jury.
For Durham, the FBI's handling of the Steele reports has been a key area of investigative interest. Steele was hired to produce the reports by research firm Fusion GPS, which had been retained by a law firm that represented Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee. A website funded by a deep-pocketed Republican donor initially hired Fusion GPS to dig into Trump's background.
But the FBI began to look into possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia before it used the Steele dossier to support the warrant applications covering Page. The Justice Department inspector general determined that the FBI was justified in starting the probe, which eventually would be taken over by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Mueller did not find a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but a report from his office mapped out various links between Trump campaign officials and the Kremlin and characterized the campaign as eager to benefit from Russia's help in 2016.
In his closing remarks, Durham defended his investigation as apolitical and a "logical" consequence, following Mueller's failure to find that the Trump campaign illegally conspired with Russia.
FBI witnesses testified that some emails and information about Dolan and Millian that Danchenko kept to himself would have been valuable to investigators vetting the sources for the dossier's claims in 2017. An FBI supervisor who led intelligence analysts in the 2016 Trump probe, Brian Auten, and a special agent working in Russian counterintelligence, Kevin Helson, both testified they might have taken different steps had they known as much as Danchenko. So did two members of the Crossfire Hurricane team.
But Auten and Helson also described Danchenko as a trusted source of information on Russian influence activities that U.S. investigators mined for years — testimony that seemed to frustrate Durham, whose questions for the FBI officials then turned more aggressive.
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Durham and Trump have been humiliated, again...
Because, the CIA and FBI investigations into Trump's Russian dealings were entirely legally predicated and predated the 2016 election by years. They were began because Trump sought out and established relationships with secret agents of Vlad Putin's Russian State Intelligence Services. Beginning by at least 2014 and continuing right up to election day in 2016 Trump was in secret negotiations with known agents of Russian State Intelligence Services to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, even offereing Putin a penthouse as a bribe. Every Intelligence agency in the world was aware Trump was meeting up with and colluding with Vlad Putin's Russian secret agents in the lead up to 2016...
Not they didn't.
Did you not read your own source? You seem to not understand what this case was even about. It's kind of embarrasing that you've seeded all these articles on Durham and appear to never have read them.
No, the jury found that the source of most of the information in the Steele Dossier told the truth...
No they didn't. Nothing of the sort.
The jury found that that Durham couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dyachenko intentionally lied to the FBI.
Yes Sean, the jury acquitted him of lying to the FBI and CIA about info in the Steele Dossier!
Read this again. The jury found that that Durham couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Dyachenko intentionally lied to the FBI.
If you think that means the jury found that he told the truth you have a severe misapprehension of our legal system works. Do you think the jury found OJ Simpson innocent of killing his wife too?
Yes, the defense successfully argued that Danchenko believed what he was telling agents was true and that it was not a crime to give unsure answers to imprecise questions.
Why did this jury unanimously find differently?
Where in hell are you getting that crap from?
Where in this article does the author say that?
You think you make a valid point? You did not!
Your unwillingness to address the topic or ever acknowledge Durham's losses is my point...
Where does my source say the Steele Dossier is crap? Why do you fail to grasp that the jury found that the source of the Steele Dossier was not lying?
The jury found he was not intentionally lying about speaking to a guy on the phone (who he never actually spoke to).
That's it.
Didn’t Danchenko indicate that he was surprised by how Steele presented the material as factual when Danchenko considered it more to be rumor and speculation?
Of course they have. I blame Bill Barr more though, you know, the guy who someone here once said was the greatest Attorney General in U.S. history. I think that was actually right after Durham was appointed and right wing media orgasmed over the "promise" that Hillary, Comey, Obama, Strzok, etc would be going to jail.
Durham's tenure as a "special prosecutor" is a total flop.
John Durham is now known as Bull Durham.
What a fun movie and an interesting town.
What a lameass diversion from Durham's FAILS!
I didn’t bring up Bull Durham, more attention to detail would improve your discourse.
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Durham would uncover "the crime of the century" inside the U.S.
He better get going on uncovering Trump's attempt to steal the election then.
These were the actual counts the jury issued a verdict on.
Count 2. March 16, 2017: Danchenko told FBI agents he received a call in late July 2016 from a person he thought was Sergei Millian, when Danchenko knew he had never received a call from Millian.
Count 3. May 18, 2017: Danchenko gave a false statement to FBI agents that he “was under the impression” that the late July 2016 call was from Millian.
Count 4. October 24, 2017: Danchenko falsely stated to FBI agents that he believed he spoke to Millian on the phone on more than one occasion.
Count 5. November 16, 2017: Danchenko lied that he “believed he has spoken to [Millian] on the telephone,” when Danchenko well knew he had never spoken to Millian
The jury found Durham couldn't prove Danchenko intentionally lied when he made those statements to the FBI. That's it.
Here's a summary of things the FBI did testify too
Steele was offered “up to a million dollars” to corroborate the Dossier.
Danchenko was a confidential human source for the FBI from March 2017 through October 2020. He was accused of giving a number of false statements during that time period. He was paid over $200,000 as an informant, and his status as a CHS buried him as a witness. “Sources and methods.”
The Mueller Special Counsel had FBI Agents and Analysts investigating the Steele Dossier - but purposefully limited the scope of that inquiry, making sure any information damning to their investigation would not be uncovered. Former FBI Intelligence Analyst Brittany Hertzog testified she learned of Charles Dolan’s connections to Danchenko during her time with the Mueller Special Counsel. She requested to interview Dolan; others opposed that request. The opposition won out.
FBI Special Agent Amy Anderson, also part of the Mueller Special Counsel, requested to interview Dolan. Her request was shut down by superiors.
Director Comey was informed on all parts of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, from its beginnings up until (theoretically) his termination.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson, who handed Danchenko as a confidential human source, omitted key derogatory information – that Danchenko was the target of a previous espionage case – in his opening paperwork.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson was recommended to assess Danchenko’s employer and look at the financial nature of Danchenko’s employment. Helson failed to do so.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson was recommended to investigate whether Danchenko lied in his visa and immigration documents. Helson failed to do so.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson ( there’s a purpose in the repetition ) was recommended to conduct a polygraph of Danchenko to determine if he “has ever been tasked by a foreign individual, entity or government to collect information or to perform actions adverse to the U.S. interest.” Helson failed to polygraph Danchenko.
Crossfire Hurricane started based on “a suggestion of some kind of suggestion” from a “friendly foreign government.” It was opened as a “full investigation,” which allowed for the use of “investigative tools” not allowed at the “preliminary investigation stage.
The FBI wanted a FISA on Carter Page “fairly early on” – around the end of July 2016 or soon thereafter. However, the FBI didn’t have enough to “secure” the warrant. The evidence wasn’t there.
FBI Analyst Brian Auten was unable to “confirm or corroborate” any of the Steele Dossier claims from the receipt of the document until the first FISA application in October 2016.
FBI Analyst Brian Auten and FBI colleague Stephen Somma knew Democrat Charles Dolan could be a source of information of the Steele Dossier. Neither asked Danchenko about Dolan.
Dolan would ultimately testify that he believed some Dossier information came from him.
The FBI checked with other agencies and was unable to corroborate the Dossier info.
FBI Analyst Brian Auten is a “subject” of the Durham investigation and will likely be “ suspended ” by the FBI.
Sergei Millian was a confidential human source (CHS) for the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office. The Crossfire Hurricane team found no evidence Millian had “assisted in the interference” of the 2016 presidential election.
While Danchenko told the FBI he spoke with Millian. E-mails from Millian demonstrate he had no idea who Millian was. The FBI/Mueller Special Counsel never obtained those e-mails.
Where's the indictments of Obama, Clinton, Comey, Clapper etc we were promised? He was supposed to bring the whole Dem house of cards down. They were supposed to parade them them into court on the evening news and usher in a whole new era of MAGA Populism vindication. But hey, he found one lawyer lied on some paperwork to save time, so yeah... That's it.