Steele dossier source acquitted of lying to FBI
A jury acquitted Igor Danchenko, an analyst hired to compile parts of the Steele dossier that alleged ties between Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, of charges of lying to the FBI on Tuesday.
Why it matters: It is a major blow to special counsel John Durham's multi-year investigation into the origins of the Russia probe and possible misconduct by U.S. law enforcement.
https://www.axios.com/2022/10/18/igor-danchenko-steele-dossier-russia-probe-trial
The big picture: In 2019, then-Attorney General Bill Barr appointed Durham to probe the origins of the Russia investigation, which began in July 2016.
- The grand jury Durham has recently used to hear evidence expired this fall and he did not seek to convene another one, suggesting he and his team may be winding down the investigation and nearing a final report on their findings, according to the New York Times.
Multiple US government inquiries uncovered dozens of contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russians, which have since been acknowledged. The candidate himself and his closest advisers even welcomed the Kremlin’s interference in the election.
With that in mind, we thought it would be worthwhile to look back at the dossier and to assess, to the extent possible, how the substance of Steele’s reporting holds up over time. In this effort, we considered only information in the public domain from trustworthy and official government sources, including documents released by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in connection with the criminal cases brought against Paul Manafort, the 12 Russian intelligence officers, the Internet Research Agency trolling operation and associated entities, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos. We also considered the draft statement of offense released by author Jerome Corsi, a memorandum released by House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Adam Schiff related to the Carter Page FISA applications and admissions directly from certain speakers.