A federal jury found Igor Danchenko not guilty of false statements to FBI. He was a key source for information in the Steele dossier.
According to The Washington Post, Danchenko was not found guilty of making false statements about information he provided to Orbis Business Solutions’ former British spy Christopher Steele. This dossier, later discredit, was also used as a foundation for warrant applications under the FBI Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, (FISA), against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide.
The dossier contained claims that Trump’s campaign conspired to work with Russia. Russia allegedly blackmailed Trump using footage of him with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel.
One of five federal charges against Danchenko was dismissed by District Judge Anthony Trenga on Friday. He deemed Danchenko’s claims to the FBI that Danchenko discussed certain dossier content with Charles Dolan “literally true,” CNN reports. Dolan had testified that he sent Danchenko material via cable news, but falsely claimed that he was a friend of the “GOP”.
According to The New York Times, the jury found Danchenko not guilty of all four charges he faced after more than a full day of deliberation.
Dolan, who was an advisor to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, served as a presidential campaign adviser in 2016.
According to CBS News, Steele and his company received payment from the U.S. firm Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS is an American law firm that lawyers for Democrats hired to investigate Trump. The Associated Press reported that the Democratic National Committee (and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign) agreed to $130,000 to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether they falsely reported funding for research.
A court document revealed that Danchenko was a paid source of the FBI between March 2017 and 2020. CNN reported that Brian Auten, an FBI supervisory analyst, testified last week at Danchenko’s trial that Steele did not prove any claims in the dossier during an October 2016 conference in return for a $1million FBI offer.
The Daily Caller News Foundation did not receive a response from an attorney for Danchenko. The FBI referred DCNF to Justice Department.
