The high-stakes trial of Igor Danchenko began today. During questioning from Special Counsel John Durham, Brian Auten, a supervisory counter intelligence analyst with the FBI, revealed the Obama FBI offered Christopher Steele one million dollars if he could prove the “dirt” in the Dossier, but that Steele could not do so.
Auten is also involved in the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
According to the FBI official, Steele refused to provide the names of any of his sources during his meeting with the bureau. Furthermore, Steele didn’t give the FBI anything substantive that corroborated his claims in his debunked dossier.
Despite that, the FBI used the dossier to get FISA warrants on Carter Page, a Trump advisor, to spy on the campaign.
The FBI, however, did reimburse expenses for Christopher Steele, making him an FBI informant.
Auten also signed off on the Mara-a-Lago raid. He hid information during Crossfire Hurricane and spent a lot of time in Ukraine. This was not disclosed publicly until recently.
Watch:
First day in Trial of Igor Danchenko who was the primary source for the debunked Steele Dossier reveals “FBI Agent Brian Auten testified the FBI offered Chris Steele $1M if he could corroborate his Dossier. Steele told officials he could not. pic.twitter.com/kJUEtQucTf
— Bruce R Snyder (@realbrucesnyder) October 11, 2022
Auten is referred for disciplinary review instead of prosecution, but we doubt much will become of it.
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Danchenko is a Russian operative identified as a primary source for Steele’s dossier. He has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI concerning the investigation by special counsel John Durham.
In September, Special Counsel John Durham provided evidence that the FBI was aware of Danchenko’s activities as early as July 2016. Durham also laid out the ties between the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” operation.
“Beginning in or about July 2016 and continuing through December 2016, the FBI began receiving a series of reports from former British government employee Christopher Steele and his firm, Orbis Business Solutions, that contained derogatory information on then-candidate Trump concerning Trump’s purported ties to Russia,” the motion states.
“Earlier that year, Perkins Coie, a U.S.-based international law firm acting as counsel to the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign, had retained Fusion GPS, a U.S.-based investigative firm, to conduct research on Trump and his associates. In or about June 2016, Fusion GPS, in turn, retained Steele and Orbis to investigate Trump’s purported ties to Russia. The Steele Reports played an important role in applications that FBI personnel prepared and submitted to obtain warrants pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) targeting Carter Page, a United States citizen who for a period of time had been an advisor to then-candidate Trump.”
“Over a fairly lengthy period of time, the FBI attempted to investigate, vet, and analyze the Steele Reports but ultimately was not able to confirm or corroborate most of their substantive allegations,” the motion added. “In the context of these efforts, the FBI learned that Christopher Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, the defendant Igor Danchenko (‘Danchenko’ or the ‘defendant’), to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the Steele Reports. From January 2017 through October 2020, and as part of its efforts to determine the truth or falsity of specific information in the Steele Reports, the FBI conducted multiple interviews of the defendant regarding, among other things, the information that he had provided to Steele.”
The discredited Steele dossier was used to justify the “sensitive and intrusive” surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page, as per the Justice Department’s Inspector General. Everyone involved knew it was a lie.
The FISA warrant renewals contained false and misleading information, as the IG report notes.
The U.S. media reported on the Steele dossier, the basis for the Russia Hoax that accused former President Donald Trump of being a traitor colluding with the Russians as if it were credible. The lies misled millions of Americans into believing that Trump’s 2016 election was not legitimate.
Democrats repeatedly said the election was stolen and silenced anyone who tried to get to the truth.
wpDiscuz
