Here’s something the drive-by media ignored yesterday. The famed “Trump Dossier,” a compendium of allegations and rumors about Donald Trump, assembled for the campaign of Hillary Clinton by shadowy ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, is being torn to shreds, bit by bit, as the investigation led by Special Counsel John Durham closes in on the perpetrators of the hoax.
Now, Durham has indicted Igor Danchenko, an analyst who was a “source” for the dossier. The indictment is another step in dismantling the lies spread by Democrats like Rep. Adam Schiff, about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
Byron Tau and Alan Cullison report in The Wall Street Journal:
An indictment returned in federal court on Thursday casts doubt on the sources of a series of salacious and largely discredited reports about former President Donald Trump and Russia that the FBI ultimately used in support of a counterintelligence investigation into his 2016 campaign and associates.
A Russia analyst who served as a central source for a dossier of opposition research material about Mr. Trump compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele was arrested and charged with lying to the FBI on Thursday, according to an indictment unsealed in Virginia federal court. He appeared before a judge on Thursday and was released on bond.
Russian-born Igor Danchenko was charged with five counts of making false statements to officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the sources of the information he helped compile for Mr. Steele. As part of a counterintelligence probe into whether Mr. Trump or any of his associates had links to Russia, Mr. Danchenko sat for numerous interviews with FBI officials in 2017 as they tried to corroborate allegations made in the dossier.
The 39-page indictment also states that several key pieces of information in the dossier—purportedly a private intelligence product compiled by a retired British MI6 agent with deep ties to Eastern Europe—weren’t collected from Russia but were sourced to chatter and gossip circulating in American political circles.
Mr. Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research firm founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, who were initially hired to do research into Mr. Trump by Republicans opposed to Mr. Trump. After Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Fusion sought Democratic funding to continue their research. After winning a contract with a law firm representing the Democratic Party, they hired Mr. Steele to investigate Mr. Trump’s Russia ties.
Mr. Danchenko has previously been identified as Mr. Steele’s “primary sub-source” in compiling a series of private intelligence reports documenting Mr. Trump’s purported ties to Russia. Documents released by the Justice Department last year contained enough information for journalists and researchers to identify Mr. Danchenko, who had voluntarily spoken to the FBI under the condition that it protect his identity.
Mr. Steele’s research was paid for through several intermediaries by the Democratic Party in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president. His reports circulated widely in political and media circles in late 2016 and served as key evidence in a secret surveillance warrant that was obtained against Carter Page, a onetime foreign-policy adviser to Mr. Trump. Many of the dossier’s claims were contested and Mr. Trump has denied nearly all of them. He said the investigation it helped spark, culminating in his firing of FBI Director James Comey and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, was a “witch hunt.”
In the years since relying on the dossier for a secret surveillance warrant and several renewals, the FBI has backed away from claims about the reliability of Mr. Steele’s information. Mr. Durham, in his indictment, wrote: “The FBI attempted to investigate, vet, and analyze the [Steele] reports but ultimately was not able to confirm or corroborate most of their substantive allegations.”
Action Line: Americans have had enough of lying politicians. The mood of the country is shifting. Keep up with changes in the American mood by clicking here to sign up for my free monthly RAGE Gauge alert.
