Chuck Grassley
09/26/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/26/2022 14:47
Debunked Anti-Trump Dossier Sub-Source Who Sought to Traffic Classified Information Remained on FBI Payroll until late 2020
09.26.2022
Debunked Anti-Trump Dossier Sub-Source Who Sought to Traffic Classified Information Remained on FBI Payroll until late 2020
Grassley, Johnson demand explanation for the FBI's continued reliance on sketchy source at taxpayer expense
WASHINGTON - Years before it paid the rumor peddler at the center of the debunked anti-Trump dossier, the FBI considered him a counterintelligence threat. Payments from the FBI to Igor Danchenko, the dossier's primary sub-source, continued from March 2017 to October 2020 despite his problematic history and ongoing congressional investigations into the FBI's years-long Russia probe codenamed Crossfire Hurricane.
Since 2016, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and others have raised a number of concerns about Crossfire Hurricane given its reliance on unverified - and now debunked - allegations from dubious sources who were paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign and Democratic National Committee. That information was central to securing a federal warrant to eavesdrop on a member of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 and 2017. At the time the FBI was paying Danchenko, it was aware of his history, including his interactions with Russian intelligence services and his offer to procure and sell U.S. government secrets.
"This extraordinary fact pattern requires additional information from the Justice Department and FBI relating to why Danchenko was placed on the payroll and paid by the taxpayer to assist in the federal government's flawed investigation into President Trump," Grassley and Johnson wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Revelations of the FBI's reliance on Danchenko as a paid human source were made in a recent court filing by Special Counsel John Durham, who continues to investigate the origins of the FBI's Russia probe. Danchenko is accused of lying to federal authorities in that investigation.
Grassley and Johnson are seeking all FBI and Justice Dept. records related to government payments to Danchenko, the counterintelligence concerns he posed and the FBI's decision to rely on him.
Full text of the Senators' letter follows.
September 21, 2022
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
Department of Justice
The Honorable Christopher Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:
On September 2, 2022, Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion in limine with respect to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) case against Igor Danchenko, Christopher Steele's primary sub-source, for lying to federal investigators.[1] In that motion, Special Counsel Durham noted that, "[i]n March 2017, the [Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)] signed [Danchenko] up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI. The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020."[2]
As you are aware, in May 2009, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Danchenko based on his reported attempts to facilitate payment for classified information. Specifically, a declassified summary of the investigation noted that Danchenko approached several individuals at a work-related event in 2008 and "indicated that if the two individuals at the table 'did get a job in the government and had access to classified information' and 'wanted to make a little extra money,'" Danchenko knew individuals who they could speak to.[3] The summary further stated that an individual interviewed by the FBI expressed the possibility that Danchenko could be "a Russian spy."[4]
The preliminary investigation then proceeded to a full investigation because Danchenko was identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects.[5] The FBI also determined that Danchenko had contact in 2006 with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers.[6] The FBI also learned that during the course of Danchenko's contacts with Russian intelligence officers, he appeared to be involved in the transmission of Russian documents at the request of a Russian Intelligence Officer.[7]
In December 2016, the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team identified Danchenko as Steele's primary sub-source and, according to the FBI, "became familiar with the 2009 investigation."[8] The FBI, even in light of the extensive derogatory information attached to Danchenko, proceeded to pay him as a confidential human source three months later from March 2017 to October 2020 as part of Crossfire Hurricane. Therefore, while we were investigating the Justice Department's and FBI's misconduct with respect to Crossfire Hurricane, you maintained him on the government's payroll.
This extraordinary fact pattern requires additional information from the Justice Department and FBI relating to why Danchenko was placed on the payroll and paid by the taxpayer to assist in the federal government's flawed investigation into President Trump.
Accordingly, no later than October 22, 2022, please provide all records relating to government payments made to Danchenko, the counterintelligence investigation into him and his later hiring.[9]
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
Ron Johnson
Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
cc: The Honorable Richard Durbin
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
The Honorable Jon Ossoff
Chairman
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
The Honorable Michael Horowitz
Inspector General
Department of Justice
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[1] Gov't's Motion In Limine at 3, United States v. Danchenko, No. 21-CR-245 (AJT) (E.D. Va. 2022), https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.515692/gov.uscourts.vaed.515692.78.0.pdf. Notably, on page 18, the motion confirms Danchenko was Steele's primary subsource, "Specifically, Steele informed the FBI that his primary subsource for the Steele Reports (the defendant) had met with Sergei Millian on two or three occasions - at least once in New York and once in Charleston, South Carolina."
[2]Id.
[3] FBI, Overview of the Counterintelligence Investigation of Christopher Steele's Primary Sub-source, Sept. 23, 2020 at 1. [Attached.] The document, on page 1, confirms that the investigation involved "Christopher Steele's Primary Sub-Source" who Durham identified as Danchenko.
[4]Id.
[5]Id.
[6]Id.
[7]Id. at 2.
[8]Id.
[9] "Records" include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports,
notes, electronic data (e-mails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information),
calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal
communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents). This definition applies to all requests for records in the questions for the record.
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