Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, RS.C. told “Hannity” on Monday that former MI6 spy Christopher Steele turned “Russian disinformation” into “a Tom Clancy novel” in the form of his now infamous record, that the FBI purchased “hook, line and lead.”
Graham was reacting to the news that emerged over the weekend that Igor Danchenko, a 42-year-old former senior research analyst at the liberal Brookings Institution, was the primary source for Steele, whose file was used to obtain wiretaps from the former campaign advisor to Trump Carter Page.
Host Sean Hannity noted to Graham that the FBI claimed in its FISA request to monitor Page that its source was abroad.
SECRET SOURCE FOR ANTI-TRUMP STEEL FILE REVEALED
“I don’t know about you,” said Graham, “but I always assumed that Russia’s secondary source was a guy in Russia, deep in the bowels of the Kremlin, who gave things to Christopher Steele.
“The sub-source was a senior Russian researcher at the Brookings Institution and an employee of Christopher Steele who lived in the United States. Call a group of people in Russia. Who do you think this information came from? It came from Russian intelligence service. They interpreted this guy as a violin. “
Graham said an FBI agent recognized Danchenko’s “information” as disinformation and warned Steele.
“Steele made it into a Tom Clancy novel. The FBI bought it with hook, line and plumb and got orders,” said Graham, who called the dossier “the most successful political operation in the history of the Democratic Party, because Steele was on the payroll of the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign. “
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The FBI interviewed Danchenko in 2017 about the information he provided for the Steele dossier that was intended to show the links of the Trump campaign to the Russian government. Danchenko cooperated on condition that the FBI keep her identity a secret in order to protect herself, The New York Times reported.
But all of that changed when Attorney General William Barr ordered the FBI to declassify his report on the three-day interview and turn it over to Graham, whose Judiciary Committee has been investigating the origins of the Russia investigation.
Marisa Schultz of Fox News contributed to this report.
