Posted on 03/23/2022 6:09:57 PM PDT by blam
The Justice Department is set to produce a “large volume” of classified materials this week pertaining to the main source for Christopher Steele’s dossier on the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
Special Counsel John Durham in a file photograph. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
The infamous “Steele dossier”, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, contained allegations that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump had colluded with Russian intelligence officials to help him win in the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.
Special counsel John Durham has asked a judge in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia for a deadline extension on the production of the classified discovery, citing the Classified Information Procedures Act, a law that establishes procedures to protect classified information in criminal cases.
He also cited the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine as a reason to need an extension.
The deadline was initially set for March 29, 2022, and Durham asked for an extension until May 13, 2022.
“To date, the government has produced over 60,000 documents in unclassified discovery. A portion of these documents were originally marked ‘classified’ and the government has worked with the appropriate declassification authorities to produce the documents in an unclassified format,” Durham said in the filing submitted to federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“However, recent world events in Ukraine have contributed to delays in the production of classified discovery. The officials preparing and reviewing the documents at the FBI and intelligence agencies are heavily engaged in matters related to Ukraine. Nevertheless, the government will produce a large volume of classified discovery this week and will continue its efforts to produce documents in classified discovery on a rolling basis, and no later than the proposed deadlines set forth below,” Durham added.
Igor Danchenko, a Eurasia political risk, defense, and economics analyst, was identified in July 2020 as the primary source for the Steele dossier.
Former U.K .intelligence officer Christopher Steele in London, U.K., on July 24, 2020. (Tolga Akmen/AFP )
The analyst provided information to Steele, who was hired by Fusion GPS, a research strategic intelligence firm based in Washington, to conduct opposition research on members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
In turn, Fusion GPS was retained by law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of the Democratic National Committee.
Danchenko had previously told the FBI that he obtained the information that was published in the dossier by “word of mouth and hearsay” from a network of sub-sources in Russia.
However, he was charged in November 2021 with five counts of making false statements to the FBI in 2017 when he misled officials about the sources of the information he provided to Steele.
According to the November indictment, all of Danchenko’s alleged lies “were material to the FBI because … the FBI’s investigation of the Trump Campaign relied in large part” on the dossier to obtain warrants to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page.
“The FBI ultimately devoted substantial resources attempting to investigate and corroborate the allegations contained in” the dossier, including whether Danchenko’s sub-sources were reliable, the indictment states. The dossier and information provided by Danchenko “played a role in the FBI’s investigative decisions and in sworn representations that the FBI made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court throughout the relevant time period.”
Igor Danchenk is seen at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 10, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla)
Danchenko has pleaded not guilty.
In December, he signed a waiver agreeing to be defended by the same law firm representing members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign despite the fact that this could pose a conflict of interest, The Washington Examiner reported.
Trump had repeatedly denied accusations that he had colluded with Russian intelligence officials in an effort to beat off Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, claiming he was the target of a “witch hunt” designed to discredit his presidency.
Numerous claims made in the dossier later turned out to be false and a number of criminal, congressional, and inspector general investigations were prompted into how the reports were used as the basis for surveilling Trump campaign officials.
Durham also made a similar request for an extension earlier this month, again citing delays due to recent events in Ukraine, in a separate case against former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.
Is Durham even real? I’ve seen this exact same pic of him for the past few years, in fact it’s the ONLY pic I ever see of him. Seems suspicious.
this is still going on?
The DOJ doesn’t have tens of thousands of employees?
Those folks working with Ukraine in the past shouldn’t already be transferred off that “desk”?
He’s working to exonerate the FBI and blame it all on Susman.
He’s pretty much already said that. The FBI wouldn’t have wasted time if Susman had told the truth. So don’t expect anything big from Durham. At best a couple more Hillary staffers that’s about it.
My hopeful side would love for Durham to be the bulldog that is his reputation.
My cynical side says Durham is burying the evidence.
G
...in 2030.
.
Zero Raids.
Not important as a Biden Diary, or one of the things Hunter has left behind at the Ritz, or a repair shop.
.
Barr was real enough. He buried everything the day Trump entrusted it to him. When was it, summer of ‘19 when Trump authorized Barr to release all of these documents and more. We all knew back then that this information would vindicate Trump completely. Barr was the most destructive rat in that entire insurrectionist gang of coup traitors.
There is a connection to Ukraine - Zelensky and his sidekicks appear in the Steele docs Durham needs to hide.
Since it was all bogus, why are the ‘materials’ classified. Protecting the guilty? It’s the DOJ way!
I’ve been saying from the beginning Steele is the key. He compiled the dossier and he trafficked it. He wasn’t doing it on his own; he was paid and given access to intelligence agencies but he was there from the beginning.
Does Durham’s facial expression ever change? The photos of Durham look almost identical only with different backgrounds. LOL
Caption contest: the constipation is killing me
Less than a dozen distincly different images of Durham’s face on that entire page!
Loads of cropping and photo shopping.
Joffe and his cybersecurity group is the key. They were given millions through government contract and usedThat contract to spy on a business, the Executive branch, and a private residence. That is why he pleads the Fifth. They didn’t just fool around with the presidential election, they also fooled around with the Alabama special election in 2017, which falls into Joffe’s claimed period of prednisone memory loss.
Igor Danchenko claimed he thought his source on the other end of the phone was Sergei Millian, but it wasn’t...
Sergei Millian was born in Belarus, a report said.
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