US agents have reportedly arrested the analyst who served as the primary source for Christopher Steele’s dossier of unproven salacious gossip about Donald Trump. The dossier was used to justify FBI wiretapping on Trump’s campaign.
Igor Danchenko was arrested on Thursday at the behest of Special Counsel John Durham, the New York Times reported. Durham had been assigned by former President Donald Trump to investigate allegations of wrongdoing in the FBI’s so-called ‘Russiagate’ probe, which examined supposed links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
A former staffer at the Brookings Institution, Danchenko served as the primary source of much of the information that would make it into former British spy Christopher Steele’s now-notorious dossier.
The dossier ended up being used by the FBI to obtain permission to spy on Trump’s campaign, with this counterintelligence operation eventually spiralling into Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ‘Russiagate’ investigation. Mueller would later find that no collusion occurred between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Steele, who had been hired by a Democrat opposition research firm to dig up dirt on Trump, swallowed everything Danchenko fed him, even though Danchenko would reportedly tell the FBI that he never intended the gossip he fed Steele to end up being involved in a criminal investigation.
In 2019, the Justice Department’s Inspector-General heavily criticized the FBI for continuing to cite the dossier even after the agency interviewed Danchenko and learned that the information within was suspect.
The charges against Danchenko are unknown, as the indictment against him remains sealed. However, before becoming involved in the Steele Dossier debacle, Danchenko had come to the attention of US authorities before, and was investigated by the FBI a decade earlier for allegedly serving as a “Russian agent” in the US. Danchenko denied the accusation.
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