ALEXANDRIA, VA — A federal judge has thrown out one of the five charges brought by special counsel John Durham against Igor Danchenko, who is accused of lying to the FBI about the sourcing for Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier.
Judge Anthony Trenga’s decision to dismiss one of the criminal counts came down to what the definition of the word “talked” is.
Durham’s indictment against the Russian-born Danchenko argued that he “stated falsely that he had never communicated with” longtime Clinton ally Charles Dolan “about any allegations contained” in the dossier, while “in truth and in fact, and as Danchenko well knew, Danchenko sourced one or more specific allegations” in the dossier anonymously to Dolan.
During an interview with the FBI, Danchenko’s handling agent, Kevin Helson, had asked Danchenko: “But you had never talked to [Dolan] about anything that showed up in the dossier right?”
The defendant had replied, “No.” The agent followed up, “You don't think so?” Danchenko replied, “No. We talked about, you know, related issues perhaps but no, no, no, nothing specific."
Danchenko’s defense attorneys have argued that their client's answer was “literally true.”
The judge agreed.
Danchenko had emailed Dolan in August 2016 to solicit any "thought, rumor, or allegation" about Manafort while informing Dolan he was working on a "project against Trump.”
Dolan wrote back, “I had a drink with a GOP friend of mine,” and made claims about Paul Manafort’s reasons for departing...
Vadodara/Surat. A special CBI court has convicted four individuals in a 23-year-old fire insurance fraud case in Gujarat and sentenced each of them to three years of rigorous imprisonment. The cou...