This mysterious Russian operative who was allegedly the lynchpin source for the entire discredited Steele Dossier that could have helped kick the Trump-Russian collusion probe from the FBI to the next level was put on the bureau’s payroll despite previous worries that he was an agent of Moscow, as reported by Special Counsel John Durham.
Durham unveiled the extensive claim concerning Igor Danchenko as part of a court filing issued on Tuesday. Danchenko was on the payroll of the bureau to be an entirely confidential human source just as the bureau carried out its “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation concerning the 2016 Trump campaign even though many officials had reason to know that he had been lying about the insane claims throughout the dossier and had previously investigated him for possible espionage, explained the prosecutor.
“In March 2017, the FBI signed the defendant up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI,” stated Durham as part of a recently unsealed court filing. “The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020. As alleged in further detail below, the defendant lied to FBI agents during several of these interviews.”
The FBI caught Steele primary subsource Igor Danchenko in a number of lies.
What did the FBI do in response?
It signed Danchenko up as a paid FBI confidential human source.
Durham's latest:https://t.co/cwjDi0Rmrd
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) September 13, 2022
Danchenko is looking down the barrel of a trial in federal court out in Virginia concerning charges about his alleged lying to the FBI. He was caught up in the investigation from Durham concerning the origins of the overall FBI investigation into the Trump campaign, which seems to have relied mostly on the dossier of now debunked claims thrown together by one former British spy, Christopher Steele, under the employ of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Danchenko was the primary source for Steele within the dossier.
Steele was also known to be a paid source for the FBI until he was officially fired back in late 2016. Durham’s most recent revelation could mean that the bureau, then headed up by Director James Comey, who was known to be intensely anti-Trump, quickly picked up the key source from Steele, despite knowing that his dossier allegations were dubious at best.
Danchenko was also brought on despite the FBI knowing that he had previously been tied to Russian intelligence, exposed Durham. The bureau had carried out its own counterintelligence probe concerning Danchenko while still under the Obama administration in the wake of determining he had attempted to purchase classified U.S. information.
“In late 2008, while the defendant was employed by a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C., the defendant engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money,” explained Durham. “Based on this information, the FBI initiated a ‘preliminary investigation’ into the defendant. The FBI converted its investigation into a ‘full investigation’ after learning that the defendant (1) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (2) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers.”
Durham claimed that the FBI scuttled the investigation in 2010, but only because it mistakenly thought Danchenko had left the country.
When the FBI first brought on Danchenko, he denied having any contact at all with Russian intelligence, expressed Durham. However, he later recanted and admitted that he had remained in contact with a pair of still unnamed officials from the Russian Embassy and various known Russian intelligence operatives, explained Durham.
