The Russian-born analyst who provided information to British ex-spy Christopher Steele for his “dirty dossier” of allegations against Donald Trump has been arrested in the United States for allegedly lying to the FBI.
Daily Mail reported that Igor Danchenko was arrested on Thursday morning in Virginia by federal agents assigned to John H. Durham’s special counsel inquiry into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He has reportedly been charged with five counts of lying to FBI agents about the sources that he used in gathering information for Steele.
Danchenko was the primary researcher for Steele’s infamous dossier that claimed that Trump had conspired with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Though the FBI cited the document in a secret warrant application to spy on a Trump campaign advisor, most of the claims made in it have either been debunked or gone unproven.
In the indictment, it’s claimed that Danchenko lied to federal investigators by saying that he had not had contact with a certain US-based executive at an American public relations firm, who it has been revealed had ties to the Democratic Party.
Not only did Danchenko in fact have contact with this executive, he used him as a key source for one or more of the allegations made in the dossier. Danchenko is the third person, and the second in the last two months, to be arrested and charged in connection with Durham’s probe.
Last year, Danchenko was accused of being a Russian agent by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Devin Nunes (R-CA). He denied this at the time by saying that he was “an experienced expert in Russian affairs who has spent more than a decade in business intelligence.”
“My academic and business intelligence work in Russia has always been on behalf of Western clients and never on behalf of Russia,” he added.
Danchenko also told the Guardian that he stood by the claims in the dossier that Russia had compromising information on Trump, saying, “I stand by it. I got it right.”
However, Danchenko has admitted that some of the more salacious claims in the dossier may be false.
“Even raw intelligence from credible sources, I take it with a grain of salt,” Danchenko said in an interview last year, according to WRIC. “Who knows, what if it’s not particularly accurate? Is it just a rumor or is there more to it?”
Danchenko’s arrest has been confirmed by Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle.
This piece was written by James Samson on November 4, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.
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Mr. Igor Danchenko, sir, I wonder IF 1 Or Both Of These Terms Are The Same, Perjury And Lying? Well, They Are Both Are ILLEGAL! In The United States Of America, In Which The Whole Left Side Of The US Political Equation Truly Should Know Too, But They Just Love All Of The IGNORING = CIRCUMNAVIGATING = CIRCUVENTING Of All 3 Parts Of The US Constitution IS ILLEGAL ALSO!!!