Steele Dossier Researcher Arrested For Lying To FBI About Alleged Trump-Russia Ties In 2016 Election

The New York Times reported Thursday that Igor Danchenko, 43, a key source in the Steele Dossier, was arrested for 5 counts of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Durham accuses Danchenko of lying about his sources to the FBI in the indictment.

Danchenko was one of the primary researchers for the Dossier, which claims that Russian intelligence officials compromised the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign. Some of this information was by the FBI to investigate the Trump campaign, and it was then used to file a wiretap application targeting a former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The arrest was a part of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins and wrongdoing of the FBI’s Russia investigation involving connections between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. Bill Bar appointed Durham shortly after the revelations in Crossfire Hurricane, Robert Muller’s Trump-Russian investigation, came out, but it remained secret as to not interfere with the 2020 election.

Some of the information from the Dossier made its way into the Mueller report, according to CNN. However, the document did not factor into the FBI’s decision to open the Trump-Russia probe, according to NPR. Trump sees it differently, claiming the entire Dossier is “fake news.”

Buzzfeed originally published the Steele Dossier in 2017. Christopher Steele, who wrote the Dossier and hired Danchenko, is a former British intelligence agent with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), his business intelligence firm was hired by Fusion GPS, a D.C.-based political research firm.

Steele’s firm was originally hired to vet Republican party candidates in 2016, including former President Donald Trump, but then Hillary Clinton hired the firm indirectly. Fusion then hired Steele to do more digging into the Russia-Trump connection, the Steele Dossier is what he produced.

This is not the only arrest Durham has made, so far, he has issued 15 subpoenas and another indictment charging cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussman. Danchenko is the third person to face charges in the span of the 2-and-a-half-year investigation.