The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered Igor Danchenko, the source of the most salacious claims in the fraudulent “Steele dossier,” as a “confidential human source” (CHS) and paid him while President Donald Trump was under investigation.
A document that was released on Wednesday by Special Counsel John Durham in his prosecution of Danchenko for lying to the FBI mentions that he was the source for former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele in his compilation of the “dossier” — including the assertion it contained a “pee tape” of Trump dancing with prostitutes in the Moscow hotel and requesting that they pee on a bed that former President Barack Obama had slept on. A number of well-known Democrats—such as impeachment counsel in 2019-20 and current presidential candidate Daniel S. Goldman—have endorsed the claim and said that the “pee tape” actually existed.
Durham asserts that Danchenko was identified as CHS by the FBI within “Operation Crossfire Hurricane,” the probe into Trump's alleged “collusion” with Russia. He was a CHS during Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
One person, writing at the “technofog” blog on Substack, was of the opinion that Danchenko could have been employed as a paid CHS to stop him from disclosing his knowledge that the FBI (and Mueller) knew that the information that was in the “dossier” was false, even though the FBI used it to get warrants for electronic surveillance on Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, who had never committed any wrongdoing.
Danchenko had a stint as a Russia researcher at the liberal Brookings Institution, together with Fiona Hill, a national security expert later called to testify against Trump during the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment investigation.
Durham has accused Danchenko of lying to the FBI in order to shield Charles Dolan Jr., who is a communications expert who has close ties with the Clintons. Danchenko is also accused of lying to the FBI regarding contacts between him and Sergei Millian, who was then the president of the Russia-American Chamber of Commerce, and whose supposed testimony helped get the FBI to obtain an arrest warrant for Carter Page. Dolan is likely to be a witness in Durham's case against Danchenko.
