Among the countless accusations hurled at former President Donald Trump, the idea that the Republican once worked alongside the Russian government continues to play out in Washington, D.C. With the trial of Russian national Igor Danchenko just a few weeks away, it seems that Special Counsel John Durham decided to strengthen his ranks with a new member, Adam Small. At the same time, former member Andrew DeFilippis decided to leave the team. Playing a crucial part in the development of the case, DeFilippis leaving has caused some concern for those who have been following its progression for the last few months. For Danchenko, he is currently charged with five counts of lying to the FBI about the ties between Trump and Russia.

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Being a key source in the Steele dossier, Igor Danchenko was arrested last year by federal agents due to the investigation by John Durham. Durham also requested 30 subpoenas for witnesses ahead of the trial that starts on October 11.

While it has taken years to get here, according to the New York Post, the entire ordeal could be over by the end of the year. “Russiagate special counsel John Durham is in the home stretch. His grand jury wrapped up work last week, apparently with no new indictments on the horizon. Attorney General Merrick Garland is said to anticipate receiving his final report by the end of the year. And Durham is gearing up for his last trial: the prosecution of Igor Danchenko, the principal source for the discredited Steele dossier.”

The outlet added, “That last one should be grabbing our attention. We now know that the so-called dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was a Clinton campaign production. It is one of the great dirty tricks in modern political history: The 2016 Democratic presidential campaign colluded with the incumbent Democratic administration’s law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to portray their partisan opposition, Donald Trump, as a Kremlin mole, then made the smear stick to the point of forcing Trump to govern for over two years under the cloud of a special-counsel investigation.”

Although the claims against Trump have been growing for six years, the New York Post explained how the FBI operated under the guidance of information that had not been verified. “Unverified information from Steele and Danchenko to suggest to a court that the president of the United States might be a Russian asset, the FBI had intelligence indicating that Danchenko himself might actually have been a Russian asset. That was detailed in yet another Durham court filing last week in the Virginia federal court where Danchenko is soon scheduled to be tried. The prosecutor related that Danchenko was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence from 2009 to 2011.”

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