Steele Dossier Source, Russian Danchenko, Was FBI's Paid Informant In 2017-2020 -Documents

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2022) Russian citizen Igor Danchenko, accused by the FBI of making false statements in the case of former US President Donald Trump's "Russian ties," was a paid informant for the bureau, according to court documents.

After the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the US authorities have been investigating alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia, based on a dossier prepared by ex-UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Now a trial is under way in the US against Danchenko, whom the FBI accuses of making false statements in the case of Trump's alleged collusion with the Russian authorities.

The prosecution insists that Danchenko lied to the FBI about the sources of information given to Steele about alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, including information that the Kremlin may have facilitated Trump's election.

The indictment states that Danchenko did not receive such information from anyone and "fabricated" facts.

"In March 2017, the FBI signed the defendant up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI. The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020... the defendant lied to FBI agents during several of these interviews," a document submitted by Special Counsel John Durham's team revealed.

According to the document, Danchenko provided data to Steele, who prepared, based on this data, materials of the dossier, which the US authorities were guided by in the investigation of alleged ties between the Trump headquarters and Russia.