The Igor Danchenko Indictment

It was all a fraud.

The Danchenko Indictment

John Durham has another scalp. On November 3, 2021, Igor Danchenko – Christopher Steele’s primary subsource – was arrested by federal authorities.

Now we have his indictment. Danchenko has been charged with false statements to federal officials during his 2017 interviews with the FBI.

According to the indictment, Danchenko lied about his contacts with “Russians,” his travels to Russia, and the identity of his sources. (Those are just some of the lies.) In John Durham’s words:

For purposes of background on the second charge, Danchenko alleged he received a call from from Belarusian reporter/businessman Sergei Millian alleging a Trump/Russia conspiracy. Millian has long-denied placing this call. This call was important because it was the basis, in part, of the FISA warrants against Carter Page. Durham’s investigation revealed Danchenko “never received such a phone call or such information from” Millian.

More from the Indictment:

• Danchenko kept “PR Executive-1” – an influential Democrat – updated of his “Kompromat” research. We have learned from a person smarter than us that this is likely Charles Dolan Jr. (Aaron Mate might have been the first to make this observation. Well done.)

• The Democrat PR Exec (Dolan): “I think [Danchenko] worked for FSB.” (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.)

• The “Russian Sub-Source-1” of Danchenko was a Hillary Clinton supporter and was gifted an autobiography of Hillary Clinton.

• “Russian Sub-Source-1” had a personal interest in a Hillary Clinton victory, stating that the Democrat PR executive (Dolan) would “take me to the State Department if Hillary wins.”

Durham alleges that Danchenko – the Steele source – and the Democrat “PR Executive” (Dolan) worked together to gather intel/dirt on Trump. From their e-mails:

The Democrat PR Executive (Dolan) later admitted to the FBI he fabricated this information to Danchenko.

Danchenko later falsely denied to the FBI that the Democrat PR Executive (Dolan) had provided him with information.

Danchenko further lied about his claims of staying in a Moscow Hotel in June 2016. He didn’t stay at the Moscow Hotel until October. This is material because Danchenko purportedly gathered information from sources during the June 2016 stay (which never occurred).

Here’s an important observation: Danchenko wasn’t a necessarily a source – he was a go-between, providing Steele with information from the Democrat PR Executive (Dolan).

And then Danchenko lied about the Democrat PR Executive (Dolan) not being his source.

Overall, Danchenko faces five false statement charges:

1. Falsely stating to FBI agents on June 15, 2017 that he had never “spoken with PR Executive-1” (Dolan) about the dossier allegations.

2. On March 16, 2017, falsely stating to FBI agents that “he received a late July 2016 telephone call from an individual who Danchenko believed was ‘probably’ [Millian"], when in truth and in fact, and as the defendant well knew, [Millian] never called Danchenko.”

3. On May 18, 2017, falsely stating to FBI agents that he “‘was under the impression’ that a late July 2016 telephone call he received was from [Millian']” when in fact Millian never called Danchenko.

4. Falsely stating to FBI agents on October 24, 2017 that he had spoken to Millian “on the telephone on more than one occasion.”

5. On November 16, 2017, falsely stating to the FBI that “he had spoken to [Millian] on the telephone” when he knew he never did.

Read the full indictment here.

I’ll be updating this article as I dive deeper into the indictment. For more background, you can read the 2017 FBI Danchenko interviews here.