The primary source of Christopher Steele’s unverified file was revealed to be a United States resident who once co-wrote an investigative paper showing that Russian President Vladimir Putin plagiarized his dissertation.
An attorney for Igor Danchenko, 42, confirmed to The New York Times that his client, a former research analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC and not a “Russia-based” source, provided the information to Steele, the British. former spy whose file was used by the FBI to obtain wiretaps from Carter Page, Trump’s former campaign aide.
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“Igor Danchenko has been identified as one of the sources that provided data and analysis [to Steele]”Mark E. Schamel told the newspaper.
The FBI knew who Danchenko was and interviewed him in 2017 about the information he provided for the Steele dossier that was intended to show the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government. Danchenko cooperated on condition that the FBI keep his identity a secret in order to protect himself, the newspaper reported.
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But all that changed when Attorney General William Barr ordered the FBI to declassify the report on his three-day interview with Danchenko and turn it over to Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., whose Judicial Committee has been investigating the origins of the Russian investigation. Graham wanted the interview to come out because it further undermines the credibility of Steele’s record, he said.
Graham released the declassified documents on July 17 that had redacted Danchenko’s name and identifying information, but an online blog post titled “I Found the Primary Source” gathered clues and identified Danchekno. RT, a Kremlin-owned news site, later published an article that also mentions Danchenko’s name.
Danchenko was born in Ukraine and is a Russian-trained lawyer who earned degrees from the University of Louisville and Georgetown University, the Times reported. According to LinkedIn, he specialized in research, analysis and consulting in Russia and Eurasia in the Washington DC area. For five years until 2010, he worked at the Brookings Institution, where he obtained Putin’s dissertation and documented evidence of plagiarism.
Danchenko’s identity raises further questions about the FBI’s renewal of an order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) against Page. In the last two requests for renewal before the FISA court, the FBI referred to the document’s primary source as “truthful and cooperative” and “Russian-based,” according to the Justice Department Inspector General report.
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But Danchenko lives in the United States, although he visited Moscow to collect information on behalf of Steele, the Times reported.
Before Danchenko’s identity was revealed, Graham said the FBI interview with the main source already cast serious doubt on the credibility of Steele’s information.
The document revealed that the primary “source” of Steele’s election reports was not a well-connected current or former Russian official, but a non-Russian contract employee of Steele’s firm, according to Graham’s judicial committee.
Furthermore, the document showed that the information Steele’s main source provided him was “second-hand and second-hand information and rumors at best,” the committee said last week.
But Danchenko’s lawyer said his client did nothing wrong by accepting a paid assignment to collect allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia for Steele’s research firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.
“Sir. Danchenko is a highly respected senior research analyst; he is not the author or editor of any of the final reports produced by Orbis,” Schamel told The Times. “Sir. Danchenko defends your data analysis and research and will let others evaluate and interpret any broader story regarding Orbis’s final report.”
