FBI offered ex-UK spy $1M to prove Trump dossier claims, agent testifies
The FBI offered up to $1 million to former British spy Christopher Steele to substantiate his claims that Donald Trump was colluding with Moscow during his first run for president, an agent testified as the trial of a leading source for Steele’s mostly disproven dossier got underway.
The offer to Steele was made in October 2016 as the British spy met with federal agents in the United Kingdom, FBI analyst Brian Auten told special counsel John Durham Tuesday.
Steele never collected the money because he could not “prove the allegations” made in his 35-page file on Trump’s ties to Russia, Auten said. The controversial work was commissioned by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The revelation came as the trial against Igor Danchenko got underway in Alexandria, Va. Danchenko, a Russian analyst, is indicted on five counts of making false statements to the FBI in 2017 as agents investigated the veracity of the dossier.
Danchenko allegedly lied when he said he received information in an anonymous phone call from Sergei Millian, a former head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. Prosecutor Michael Keilty told the jury Danchenko never spoke to Millian or took an anonymous phone call when he had claimed he did.
The defendant was also accused of lying when he denied talking to public relations executive Charles Dolan Jr., who is believed to have supplied Danchenko with many of his material, including the unproved assertion that Trump ordered Russian prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed once occupied by then-President Barack Obama out of spite.
Dolan, who has been involved with Democratic presidential campaigns since the Jimmy Carter administration, tried to throw cold water on the content of the dossier a day after it was published by BuzzFeed without verification.
“I’m hoping that this is exposed as fake news,” Dolan wrote to his client Aleksej Gubarev, according to The Wall Street Journal “I may be wrong but I have doubts about the authenticity.”
Gubarev later sued BuzzFeed for libeling him by not redacting his name from the dossier, which alleged he hacked the DNC. The Russian national’s suit was dismissed because of the potential national security implication of the trove.
Danchenko’s lawyer Danny Onorato argued he did not mislead the feds, saying the man he believed to be Millian called him from an untraceable app, and arguing that Danchenko was not wrong to say he didn’t “talk” to Dolan because the two had only emailed each other.
Auten told the court the Steele dossier was used as evidence to serve a warrant against Trump campaign adviser and Moscow-based investment banker Carter Page, who was ultimately exonerated by special counsel Robert Mueller, Durham’s predecessor.
Danchenko is the third person to be prosecuted by Durham in connection with the case. Former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted of lying to the FBI and ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to falsifying documents used to surveil Page. Clinesmith escaped jail time following his admission.
With Post wires
