Igor Danchenko
Special counsel John Durham, assigned to review the misbehavior under the Barack Obama administration that created the now-discredited "Russia collusion" conspiracy theory, has used a subpoena to gather information about a source for the debunked Steele dossier, according to a report.
Durham used a subpoena to get documents about Igor Danchecko from the leftist Brookings Institution, which employed him, the Washington Examiner explained in a report.
Former British agent Christopher Steele created his dossier attacking Donald Trump while getting paid by the Democrat National Committee and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, and allegedly got some of the wild claims, now proven false, from Danchenko.
It is "people familiar with the investigation" who said Durham "has keyed in on the FBI's handling of a notorious dossier of political opposition research both before and after the bureau started using it to obtain court permission to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser," according to reporting from the New York Times.
Danchenko worked at the institution from 2005 to 2010.
The circumstances were that Clinton, reportedly wanting to divert attention from her own scandal involving her posting national secrets on an unsecure email system, funded the creation of accusations against then-candidate Donald Trump.
Those accusations eventually were used by the Obama administration – even though they were known to be false – to support requests in court to use America's intel agencies as weapons against the Trump campaign.
This was done by withholding from judges critical information about the statements and witnesses that were used by the Obama administration to pursue that "Russia collusion" investigation, which claimed the Trump campaign worked with Russia on the 2016 campaign when it actually was the Clinton campaign that was utilizing Russian sources.
The Times report said the Durham, several weeks ago, obtained personnel files and other documents concerning Danchenko from the institution.
"Michael Cavadel, the general counsel at Brookings, said the subpoena was received on New Year’s Eve and the think tank took until February to produce the documents to Durham in part because of coronavirus-related delays. Cavadel told the New York Times that 'Brookings provided the responsive documents, none of which contained information associated with the reports known as the Steele dossier,'" the Examiner explained.
The report also noted Durham was seeking answers "that suggested a focus on skepticism about how the FBI approached issues that might have undermined the dossier's credibility."
Further, he wondered why the FBI did not tell the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Danchenko was "the subject of a counterintelligence investigation," details that obviously would have impacted the credibility of the FBI demands for permission to spy on the Trump campaign.
While the full extent of corruption of America's intel systems regarding the Obama administration's campaign against Trump has yet to be revealed, a report more than a year ago from Michael Horowitz, the inspector general for the Department of Justice, revealed the fake Steele dossier was a "central and essential" part of the campaign.
Further, Horowitz cited at least 17 "errors and omissions" by the FBI in its effort to set up a case against Trump and his campaign.
William Barr, attorney general under President Trump, unsealed documents that confirmed Danchenko had been investigated by the FBI as a potential "threat" to national security – before he served as Steele's informant on claims against Trump. Barr also bluntly told a congressional committee that the intel agencies had, in fact, spied on the Trump campaign.
The Examiner also reported that as least three employees at Brookings had some connection with spreading the information contained in the dossier.
Steele had written to Strobe Talbott, then president of Brookings, about what to do with the dossier, which Steele earlier had delivered to Talbot.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Trump several times has openly questioned the progress of Durham's investigation.
"Where’s Durham? Is he a living, breathing human being? Will there ever be a Durham report?” Trump asked in a statement released on March 26.
The foundation's report noted that the FBI failed to reveal to the FISA court that investigators failed to verify Steele's claims, or that Danchenko's own statements conflicted with Steele's statements.
FBI special counsel Robert Mueller spent more than two years of Trump's first term investigating the president, and concluded there was nothing to the collusion claims.
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