Closing arguments wrapped up on the trial of Igor Danchenko, the primary source who delivered fraudulent information to Christopher Steele for transmission to the FBI. The jury now has the case and it’s likely they will not convict.
When you accept the FBI knew the Steele Dossier was a fabricated assembly of political dirt against Trump, the trial of Danchenko becomes more about the FBI corruption than lies by the defendant. How can the same DOJ who willingly and willfully benefitted from the lies, now turn around and prosecute the liar. Hillary Clinton lawyers providing the defense for Danchenko used this angle to criticize the prosecution in closing arguments.
(Via CNN) […] Danchenko lawyer Stuart Sears said prosecutors brazenly cast aside information that “doesn’t support their narrative that he’s a liar.” Sears pointed out how Durham turned on his own witnesses after they provided evidence that helped the defense.
“The special counsel attacked them mercilessly,” Sears said. “They attacked the credibility of the very witnesses they called in here, because they didn’t say what they wanted them to say.” Sears added: “The government’s own evidence in this case proves that the defendant is not guilty.”
Durham’s team urged jurors to convict Danchenko on Monday, telling them to “look at his own words” in emails from 2016 that they believe prove that he later misled the FBI about his ties to a possible dossier source. “You didn’t check your common sense at the courthouse door,” prosecutor Michael Keilty said. “You need to use it.”
Keilty said Danchenko gave a “shifting story” to the FBI agents who interviewed him in 2017, while they were trying to corroborate the explosive allegations in the dossier that Trump’s campaign was colluding with the Russian government to win the presidency.
“The FBI surveilled a US citizen for nearly a year based on those lies,” Keilty said, referring to the wiretaps of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI affidavits used to secure those surveillance warrants included material that came from the Trump-Russia dossier.
Danchenko’s lawyer also blasted the Trump-era Justice Department for “exposing” him as an FBI informant and for launching the probe that led to his prosecution.
“He was trying to help the FBI, and now they’re indicting him for it,” Sears said.
As a paid informant, Danchenko significantly assisted multiple FBI probes between 2017 and 2020. But the FBI was forced to cut ties with Danchenko in late 2020, after the Justice Department indirectly outed him as a dossier source.
“He deserved more than to be exposed because a bunch of politicians put politics over national security,” Sears said. (read more)
