The ongoing trial of Russia analyst Igor Danchenko has brought further revelations about how the FBI pays for information, with the source receiving $200,000 over a period of more than three years, according to witnesses.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson testified about the payments in Danchenko’s lying-to-the-FBI trial after Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham spent years investigating the origins of the Russia probe.
Helson told the court that Danchenko, who was a key source on former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier, was paid $3,000 for just one meeting.
He testified that he deposited an additional $346,000 when he was closed as a source, Fox News reported, but that it was not approved. The work, which earned him $200,000, took three and a half years.
On the payroll: Russian analyst Igor Danchenko is on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI about his sources. An FBI official testified that Danchenko was paid $200,000 over a period of three and a half years
That revelation came days after FBI regulatory analyst Brian Auten testified that the FBI had offered Steele $1 million in cash to prove the salacious allegations in the dossier he had compiled on Trump, but that the FBI would take the money not released because Steele could not object to the claims.
Danchenko is accused of lying to the FBI when questioned about his information and is on trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
He was charged with five counts for giving the FBI false information about the dossier when agents rushed to verify his information. Prosecutors previously told the court that Danchenko fabricated one of his own sources and hid the identity of another when questioned by the bureau.
Danchenko’s own sources are also being scrutinized and mentioned in the indictments.
News You May Use: Charles Dolan Jr. has testified that he gave Danchenko information he saw on TV about the Trump campaign intrigues with Paul Manafort
Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled the infamous dossier containing material on Donald Trump and the then-candidate’s Russia connections. An FBI guard testified that Steele was offered $1 million to secure his information but was unable to do so
Steele compiled a series of reports on ties between Trump figures and Russia, along with salacious, unsubstantiated allegations about Trump’s alleged behavior in a Moscow hotel room
One of them, Democrat PR executive Charles Dolan Jr., testified that he lied when providing information to Danchenko, who was seeking information about the sudden resignation of former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Manafort had significant lobbying and financial ties to Kremlin-backed figures in Ukraine, and there were public reports of internal campaign tensions when he left. And it turns out that Dolan was relying on public information that he wanted to pass off as insider dope.
Auten (pictured) testified that information from the Steele dossier was used to support a surveillance order against a Trump campaign official, Carter Page, although the information could not be corroborated
Danchenko, in turn, shared the information, and it was included in the dossier containing other baseless and salacious allegations against Trump.
Dolan read from August 19, 2016, where Danchenko sought information about the Manafort intrigue.
Dolan said he would “dig around” and later told Danchenko, “I was drinking with a GOP friend who knows the players.”
On the stand, he admitted he never met with a GOP source, The Washington Times reported.
“I thought I’d dress up a bit.” He said Dolan has helped him in the past and that he wants to “throw a bone.”
“I thought I’d dress it up just a little bit to make it look like his contacts were good,” he said.
“You didn’t actually have any inside information, did you?” Prosecutor Michael Keilty asked him.
“No,” he replied.
Dolan said he wasn’t sure why Danchenko was looking for information at the time.
“You never spoke to Mr. Danchenko about anything that came up in the files, did you?” Attorney Stuart Sears asked him.
“Right,” Dolan replied.
Prosecutors read part of the dossier in court, which said a political figure linked to Trump gave the reasons for “Manafort’s downfall” and that it was “true that the corruption revelations in Ukraine had played a part, but also several senior players close to Trump wanted to take out Manafort, primarily to loosen his control over strategy and policy formulation.’
Manafort was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison on tax, bank fraud and corruption charges but was pardoned by Trump.
His Russia contacts were part of several Russia connections of figures close to Trump included in the dossier.
Durham’s years-long investigation has resulted in a single conviction – of FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith for manipulating an email used to justify surveillance. The trial of Hillary Clinton’s campaign attorney, Michael Sussmann, ended in an acquittal.