Good Durham v Danchenko article from the Examiner
Durham argues Danchenko’s lies about dossier mattered to FBI investigation
John Durham pushed back on attempts to dismiss his case against Igor Danchenko, arguing his alleged lies about Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier mattered and that the falsehoods affected the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
Danchenko, a Russian-born, U.S.-based lawyer, has been charged by Durham with five counts tied to alleged lies he told the bureau about the Trump dossier, and he has pleaded not guilty.
Danchenko is seeking to dismiss the charges, in part by implying that Robert Mueller's failure to unearth those alleged lies is proof that they weren’t lies, while also arguing they don't matter.
Danchenko anonymously sourced a fabricated claim about Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Hillary Clinton allyChuck Dolan, who spent years, including 2016, doing work for Russian businesses and the Russian government, according to Durham’s indictment.
“The defendant’s lie was material because, as the Indictment plainly lays out, had the FBI known that Charles Dolan was a source for the Steele Reports, it is more likely that they would have (or should have) also interviewed Dolan, given Dolan’s (1) relationship to several key players who appear in the Steele Reports and (2) proximity to the defendant at the time the defendant was allegedly gathering information that would later appear in the Steele Reports,” Durham wrote on Friday.
DURHAM WANTS TO USE FBI MESSAGES FROM ANALYST EMBROILED IN HUNTER BIDEN SAGA
The special counsel said Dolan “had relationships with several Russian government officials."
“Dolan was present with the defendant in June 2016 at the Ritz Carlton Moscow when the defendant allegedly personally gathered information on Donald Trump’s purported salacious sexual activity at that hotel,” Durham added. “Again, had the FBI known that Dolan was a source for the Steele Reports — in addition to his ties to some of the key protagonists — the FBI logically would have interviewed Dolan.”
Durham wants to call Bernd Kuhlen, the German-born then-general manager of the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow, who would undermine the unfounded and infamous “pee tape” allegations.
The special counsel wrote: “It also is of no help to the defendant that — as will become clear through Dolan’s testimony at trial — Dolan fabricated the genesis of this information.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-danchenkos-lies-about-dossier-mattered-fbi