According to an indictment, Igor Danchenko repeatedly lied to the FBI about his sources of information.
Russian analyst Igor Danchenko who contributed to a dossier of Democratic-funded research into ties between Russia and Donald Trump has been arrested on charges of repeatedly lying to the FBI about his sources of information.
The five-count indictment on Thursday accuses Danchenko of making multiple false statements to the FBI when interviewed in 2017 about his role in collecting information for Christopher Steele, a former British spy whose research into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was financed by Democrats.
Danchenko, a US-based Russian who'd specialised in Russian and Eurasian matters as an analyst at Brookings Institution, was a significant source for Steele when compiling his dossier of research.
That dossier, the target of intense derision from Trump, was ultimately provided to the FBI and used by federal authorities as they applied for and received surveillance warrants targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Prosecutors say that deception mattered because the FBI “devoted substantial resources attempting to investigate and corroborate" the dossier's allegations and had “relied in large part” on that research in obtaining the surveillance warrants.
A lawyer for Danchenko had no immediate comment.
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Contents of indictment
The indictment says Danchenko misled the FBI by denying that he had discussed any allegations in the dossier with a contact of his who was a public relations executive and longtime Democratic operative who volunteered for the campaign of Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 opponent.
Danchenko had sourced one or more allegations in the dossier anonymously to that Clinton associate, the indictment says.
The individual is not named in court papers, but his lawyer confirmed his identity as Charles Dolan Jr, a former executive director of the Democratic Governors Association who advised Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and volunteered for her 2016 campaign.
The charging documents also refer to salacious and unsupported sexual allegations involving Trump's behaviour at a Moscow hotel that was included in the dossier but that Trump has vigorously disputed, including in private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.
The indictment says Danchenko told the FBI he had collected information about Trump's activities at the hotel from multiple sources but didn't himself know if the sexual allegations were true.
According to the indictment, Dolan stayed in June 2016 at the same Moscow hotel and received a tour of the presidential suite.
A hotel staff member revealed that Trump had stayed there, but Dolan and another unidentified person said the staff member didn’t mention any sexual or salacious activity.
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The indictment says that since Dolan “was present at places and events where Danchenko collected information” for the dossier, Danchenko's deception about his relationship with Dolan “was highly material to the FBI's investigation of these matters.”
It also accuses Danchenko of fabricating a July 2016 phone call he claimed he received from someone he believed to be the president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.
That person, according to the dossier and Danchenko's account to the FBI, told him about a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between the Trump campaign and Russia – an assertion that prosecutors say “would ultimately underpin” the surveillance warrant applications.
The case against Danchenko is part of special counsel John Durham's ongoing investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe into whether Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia had conspired to tip the outcome of that year's presidential campaign.
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