resident, who was an executive at a public relations firm, about allegations in the dossier. In one instance, federal prosecutors said Danchenko falsely stated that he never communicated with an unidentified U.S. Danchenko's travel is restricted to the Washington, D.C., area. He was released on a $100,000 bond and required to surrender his passport within 24 hours. His attorney said he would plead not guilty.

The false statements were allegedly made on five different occasions, from March 2017 to November 2017, according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.ĭanchenko was arrested Thursday morning and appeared in court in Virginia later in the afternoon. In September, Durhamon, secured an indictment against a Washington attorney accused of lying to the FBI.Washington - A Russian analyst who worked with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer behind a controversial dossier about former President Donald Trump and Russia, has been indicted on federal charges of making false statements to the FBI, according to the Justice Department.Ī federal grand jury charged Igor Danchenko, a 43-year-old Russian national living in Virginia, with five counts of lying to federal investigators about the sources of information he provided to Steele's firm, which was then included in the dossier passed to the FBI. Since that appointment, the Connecticut federal prosecutor's investigation has resulted in one conviction against an FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to altering an email used to justify the Page surveillance. The case against Danchenko represents the third prosecution brought by Durham, who was tapped by former Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to examine possible FBI surveillance abuses. In interviews with the FBI, Danchenko characterized Trump's alleged activity as more 'rumor and speculation.' 'Over time, the FBI attempted to investigate, vet, and analyze the (Steele report) but ultimately was not able to confirm or corroborate most of their substantive allegations,' according to court documents unsealed Thursday.Īccording to the documents, prosecutors asserted that Danchenko provided differing accounts of the most salacious of the allegations – that Trump consorted with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel that was under heavy surveillance by Russian authorities. Its explosive contents became part of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and were used to help support surveillance requests for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.Īt the time, the FBI based its assessment of Page, cast as part of a 'well-coordinated conspiracy of cooperation' between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, on the information assembled by Steele, with the assistance Danchenko.Ī subsequent review of the FBI surveillance applications by the Justice Department's inspector general revealed that the bureau's surveillance requests were rife with error. The dossier, first published by BuzzFeed just before Trump's 2017 inauguration, suggested in part that Russia had obtained compromising information as part of a Kremlin effort to co-opt Trump. 'Because the vitriol and the things that people have said about us and our motivations and our work are so far-fetched and untrue, I thought it was important to come and set the record straight.' 'It's not at all usual for me to be in the public eye, but we've been there for five years,' Steele told ABC. Last month, Steele defended his work in an interview with ABC News, in which he also described how the resulting political firestorm altered his life. Steele assembled the report, a collection of memos, for the firm Fusion GPS, which had been hired by a law firm representing the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Trump has long seized on the unverified dossier, authored by Steele, as part of a political attack to undermine his 2016 campaign and his presidency.

Justice: DOJ special counsel Durham secures indictment against DC cybersecurity lawyer in Russia review But prosecutors said that when news of the impending charges leaked, the FBI moved to arrest him.

In one instance, according to federal prosecutors, Danchenko falsely claimed he obtained information from an anonymous caller who indicated that there were 'communications ongoing between the Trump campaign and Russian officials and that the caller had indicated the Kremlin might be of help in getting Trump elected.'ĭanchenko, appearing in court in an open-collar white shirt and dark pants, had planned to surrender to authorities Thursday as part of an agreement with the government.

Steele dossier indictments