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.
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:
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]
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]
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]
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.
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
-30-
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.”
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.
“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.