John Durham wants to include wild claims made by the main source for Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier as evidence during his false statements trial.
Durham asked the judge to admit Igor Danchenko’s “uncharged false statements to the FBI” on the infamous and unfounded allegations surrounding former President Donald Trump‘s salacious activity at Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The special counsel also sought to introduce evidence about an email to Danchenko’s former employer Cenk Sidar dated Feb. 24, 2016, in which he “advised Sidar, when necessary, to fabricate sources of information.”
Furthermore, he wants the judge to allow information on “uncharged false statements to the FBI reflecting the fact that [Danchenko] never informed friends, associates, and/or sources” that he worked for Steele.
Danchenko was indicted last year on five counts of making false statements to the bureau and has pleaded not guilty.
According to Durham, Danchenko anonymously sourced a fabricated claim about Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Hillary Clinton ally Chuck Dolan, who spent years, including 2016, doing work for Russian businesses and the Russian government.
Durham’s indictment also says Danchenko lied to the FBI about a phone call he claims he received from Sergei Millian, an American citizen born in Belarus, who the Steele source had said told him about a conspiracy of cooperation between Trump and the Russians.
The special counsel said he plans on calling a witness who would undermine the unfounded “pee tape” allegations that Danchenko allegedly passed to Steele and were published in the dossier.
DANCHENKO TRIES TO DISMISS INDICTMENT BY POINTING TO MUELLER
Durham has interviewed and wants to call Bernd Kuhlen, the German-born then-general manager of the Ritz-Carlton.
“The Government intends to prove at trial that the defendant falsely sought to attribute the Ritz Carlton Allegations to Mr. Kuhlen, and, as referenced above, to Sergei Millian as part of his work on the Steele Reports that are described in the Indictment,” Durham wrote.
The special counsel added: “Mr. Kuhlen does not recall ever meeting or speaking with the defendant in June 2016, or at any time. Mr. Kuhlen also has denied (1) having knowledge of the Ritz-Carlton Allegations at any time prior to their being reported in the media, (2) discussing such allegations with, or hearing them from, the defendant. Mr. Kuhlen also has confirmed to the Government and will testify at trial that he was the only ‘western’ member of management at the hotel in June 2016.”
The dossier was created after Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was itself hired by Perkins Coie and Marc Elias, the general counsel for Clinton’s campaign.
“Over a fairly lengthy period of time, 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,” Durham wrote, saying the FBI learned Steele relied primarily on Danchenko to collect the information which “ultimately formed the core allegations found in the Steele Reports.”
“From January 2017 through October 2020, and as part of its efforts to determine the truth or falsity of specific information in the Steele Reports, the FBI conducted multiple interviews of the defendant regarding, among other things, the information that he had provided to Steele,” Durham wrote. “In March 2017, the FBI signed the defendant up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI. The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020… The defendant lied to FBI agents during several of these interviews.”
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in 2019 that Danchenko undermined Steele’s unfounded claims of a “well-developed conspiracy” between Trump and Russia.
Durham also discovered that Danchenko was investigated by the FBI in 2009 as a possible “threat to national security,” according to documents declassified by then-Attorney General William Barr.
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The special counsel said the counterintelligence investigation “was closed in 2010 after the FBI incorrectly believed that the defendant had left the country” and that, during his January 2017 interview with the FBI, Danchenko “initially denied having any contact with Russian intelligence or security services but later, as noted by the agents, contradicted himself and stated that he had contact with two individuals who he believed to be connected to those services.”
