A federal jury acquitted Russian analyst Igor Danchenko on Tuesday on four counts of lying to the FBI in what is expected to be the final case stemming from special counsel John Durham’s three-year probe into the origins of the agency’s investigation into alleged ties between former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. …
Durham’s team called several witnesses during the trial, including FBI analyst Brian Auten, who revealed the agency offered up to $1 million to Steele if he could provide evidence or sources that would produce “corroborating information that led to a successful prosecution” stemming from the allegations in his dossier,” and FBI agent Kevin Helson. Helson was Danchenko’s “handler” from 2017 until the Russian analyst’s identity as a main contributor to the dossier was indirectly revealed by the Justice Department in 2020.
Helson recalled Danchenko being upset about “how Mr. Steele embellished the information he provided.”
“Steele was trying to burn everything to the ground around him” to prove the allegations in his dossier true, Helson testified.
[That revelation was probably the most beneficial from Durham’s probe — but his failures to win at trial are not going to make this effort look good. — Ed]
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