authorities arrest contributed steele dossier

Authorities arrest contributed steele dossier series#

Danchenko worked for the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington think-tank, he had been the subject of a counterintelligence investigation into whether he was a Russian agent. The inspector general report also said that a decade earlier, when Mr. Danchenko without alerting judges that some of what he said had cast doubt on the contents of the dossier.

for continuing to cite material from the dossier after the bureau interviewed Mr. Danchenko - who was born in Russia but lives in the United States - had relayed was more speculative than the dossier implied.Ī 2019 investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general sharply criticized the F.B.I. Steele left unclear that much of the material was thirdhand information, and some of what Mr. The interview suggested that aspects of the dossier were misleading: Mr. Danchenko in 2017 when they were seeking to run down the claims in the dossier. Danchenko’s employer, Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent - have not been proven, and some have been refuted. Trump was sworn in.īut most of the important claims in the dossier - which was written by Mr. Other portions of it - particularly a salacious claim about a purported sex tape - caused a political and media firestorm when Buzzfeed published the materials in January 2017, shortly before Mr. wiretap application targeting a former Trump campaign adviser in October 2016.

He claimed the dossier overstated information he had given to Steele.Some claims from the Steele dossier made their way into an F.B.I. The Post also reported that an inspector general report found that Danchenko tried to distance himself from the dossier when the FBI later questioned him about the allegations in the file. The charges against Danchenko were expected to be unsealed later Thursday, the Post reported.

Steele presented the dossier to the FBI, which used it to secure secret surveillance court orders targeting former Trump adviser Carter Page. Steele said those reports were based on information from a person he called his 'primary sub-source,' which was Danchenko, people familiar with the matter told the The Washington Post.

Authorities arrest contributed steele dossier series#

He provided information to British ex-spy Christopher Steele, who compiled the accusations about Trump in a series of reports. The phony Steele dossier was created as part of a Democrat effort to discredit former President Donald Trump's election victory.ĭanchenko was the primary researcher of the Steele dossier, a compilation of rumors and unproven assertions. ET Thursday.ĭurham was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr to probe the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.Ī new round of subpoenas came after Durham charged Hillary Clinton's former campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann in an indictment alleging he lied to federal investigators in September 2016, when he gave them data that he claimed showed a connection between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank in Russia. The special counsel's office said Danchenko was scheduled to appear before U.S. The Russian citizen and Virginia resident was charged with 'five counts of making false statements to the FBI,' according to a release issued by the special counsel's office.ĭurham's office added that the charges in the indictment stemmed from statements made by Danchenko relating to the sources he used in providing information to a United Kingdom investigative firm that prepared what are identified in the indictment as 'Company Reports.'ĭanchenko's arrest was first reported by The New York Times. Igor Danchenko, 43, was arrested as part of special counsel John Durham's investigation. An analyst considered the primary researcher of the Steele dossier was arrested Thursday by federal authorities.