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Durham further undermined the dossier by highlighting the previously unknown involvement of some Democratic partisans.Īs recently as last month, Trump railed against the dossier at a rally in Ohio, where he singled out Danchenko by name and claimed Danchenko “fabricated” the “smears” in the dossier. The Justice Department inspector general revealed in a 2019 report that many of Steele’s claims were little more than gossip or speculation. Trump vehemently denied the claims, though Democratic partisans and some media figures latched onto hope that they were true.īut the credibility of the dossier has steadily declined over time.

The dossier contained unverified allegations about Trump’s connections to Russia, including his alleged business dealings, rumors of lurid trysts in Moscow and claims that his campaign collaborated with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. Those memos, known as “the dossier,” became public in January 2017, when BuzzFeed News posted it online.

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Steele put their findings into a series of memos, which he shared with some Clinton aides and reporters. In 2016, Steele and Danchenko quietly collected what they called “raw intelligence” on Trump’s ties to Russia. Steele’s work was indirectly funded by the Clinton campaign: They paid a law firm, which hired an opposition research company, which hired Steele. But throughout the pre-trial proceedings, Durham has shadowboxed against Steele and the Democratic operatives linked to the dossier. thesis, before he got caught up with the Steele dossier and Durham probe. On paper, the case revolves around Danchenko – an analyst who was best known for exposing that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely plagiarized much of his Ph.D. Garland has previously pledged to publicly release “as much as possible.” In the coming months, Durham is expected to finish his report, which will be submitted to Attorney General Merrick Garland for review.

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The Danchenko trial in Arlington, Virginia, is likely Durham’s final courtroom showdown. Durham’s only other case, against a Hillary Clinton campaign attorney, ended with an acquittal. He secured just one guilty plea from an FBI lawyer. “We’re going to try to avoid political overtones,” Durham said, during an exchange about a potential juror, who had said they were biased against the Trump administration.ĭurham hasn’t delivered anything in three-plus years resembling the Watergate-level charges that Trump has repeatedly said are coming. But in many ways, Durham and his prosecutors have used the Danchenko case as a vehicle to put the entire dossier on trial and expose serious flaws in Steele’s work.Ī Trump-era holdover, Durham was tapped in 2019 by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to “investigate the investigators,” and look for government misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe.ĭuring jury selection, Durham said he wanted to steer mostly clear of politics. The charges against Danchenko are extremely narrow and pertain to alleged false statements he made about where he got the material that he passed to retired British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the dossier. He was the primary source of information for the dossier and is accused of lying in 2017 to FBI agents who were trying to corroborate the dossier. On trial is Igor Danchenko, a Russian expat who lives in the Washington, DC, area and has worked as a foreign policy analyst.

The final expected trial of special counsel John Durham’s inquiry begins Tuesday and will focus on the infamous “Steele dossier,” which roiled US politics after the 2016 election, fueled the FBI probe of potential Trump-Russia collusion and continues to be cited by former President Donald Trump as proof of a grand conspiracy to destroy his political career.

Russian dossier