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Special Counsel John Durham has asked a federal court to issue more than two dozen subpoenas associated with the trial of Igor Danchenko, the Russian national accused of lying about his connection to the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier.
Durham this week requested that 30 subpoenas be issued to individuals to testify on behalf of the government during Danchenko’s trial, which is set to begin Oct. 11.
The court filing, reviewed by Fox News, did not reveal the identities of the individuals Durham is requesting be compelled to testify.
Danchenko was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI. The charges stemmed from statements Danchenko made relating to the sources he used in providing information to an investigative firm in the U.K.
Special Counsel John Durham
(REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson)
Danchenko is believed to be the sub-source for former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who compiled the dossier that served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through the law firm Perkins Coie.
According to the indictment, in March, May, June, October and November of 2017, Danchenko made false statements regarding the sources of certain information that he provided to a U.K. investigative firm that was then included in reports prepared by the firm and subsequently passed to the FBI.
The June 15, 2017, false statement count alleges that Danchenko denied that he had spoken with a particular individual about material information contained in one of the “Company Reports” when he knew that was untrue.
Igor Danchenko leaves Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The March 16, 2017; May 18, 2017; Oct. 24, 2017; and Nov. 16, 2017, counts involve statements made by Danchenko on those dates to FBI agents regarding information he “purportedly had received from an anonymous caller who he believed to be a particular individual, when in truth and in fact he knew that was untrue,” Durham’s office said Thursday.
“The information purportedly conveyed by the anonymous caller included the allegation that there were communications ongoing between the Trump campaign and Russian officials and that the caller had indicated the Kremlin might be of help in getting Trump elected,” Durham’s office said in a statement last year.
Durham’s team is shifting their focus to the Danchenko trial following the more than two-week-long trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.
The jury in late May found Sussmann not guilty of making a false statement to the FBI in September 2016 when he said he was not working on behalf of any client when he brought information alleging a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
The jury found that Durham’s team had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Sussmann’s statement was a lie, and that he was, in fact, working on behalf of Clinton’s presidential campaign and technology executive Rodney Joffe when he brought two thumb drives and a white paper alleging a Trump-Russia connection.
Sussmann was charged with one count of making a false statement to the FBI during his meeting with then-FBI General Counsel James Baker on Sept. 19, 2016.
The mainstream media has largely avoided covering the trial of ex-Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been charged with making a false statement to the FBI.
(REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson)
Durham has indicted three people as part of his investigation: Sussmann in September 2021, Danchenko in November 2021 and Kevin Clinesmith in August 2020.
Clinesmith was also charged with making a false statement. Clinesmith had been referred for potential prosecution by the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office, which conducted its own review of the Russia investigation.
Specifically, the inspector general accused Clinesmith, though not by name, of altering an email about Trump campaign aide Carter Page to say that he was “not a source” for another government agency. Page has said he was a source for the CIA. The DOJ relied on that assertion as it submitted a third and final renewal application in 2017 to eavesdrop on Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Kevin Clinesmith was charged with making a false statement as part of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty in 2020.
Sources have told Fox News that Durham’s investigation is ongoing.
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A special counsel scope order states that Durham “is authorized to investigate whether any federal official, employee or any other person or entity violated the law in connection with the intelligence, counter-intelligence or law-enforcement activities directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns, individuals associated with those campaigns, and individuals associated with the administration of President Donald J. Trump, including but not limited to Crossfire Hurricane and the investigation of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III.”
Under U.S. code, the special counsel would produce a “confidential report” and is ordered to “submit to the Attorney General a final report, and such interim reports as he deems appropriate in a form that will permit public dissemination.”
