In his case against Igor Danchenko, liar and primary sub-source for the fake Steele dossier, Special Counsel John Durham requested that a federal court issue thirty subpoenas for unnamed witnesses to appear for testimony, according to the Washington Examiner.
Danchenko has been charged with five counts of lying to the FBI. His trial is scheduled for October, and he has pleaded not guilty.
It was recently revealed that Danchenko was a paid FBI informant, as Breaking Digest previously reported.
In Durham’s Wednesday court filing, he requested that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issue “thirty subpoenas” for unnamed witnesses to appear “before said Court at Alexandria, Virginia,” beginning Oct. 11. A copy of the blank subpoena reads “YOU ARE COMMANDED to appear.”
More from the Washington Examiner:
Special counsel John Durham requested a federal court to issue 30 subpoenas for testimony in the trial against Igor Danchenko, British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s alleged main source for his discredited dossier.
Danchenko was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI, which Durham says he made about the information he provided to Steele for the dossier. His trial is scheduled for October. The DOJ’s watchdog said FBI interviews with Danchenko “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting” and concluded Danchenko “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier. He has pleaded not guilty.
Durham’s brief court filing on Wednesday requested the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to issue “thirty subpoenas” for an “appearance before said Court at Alexandria, Virginia,” starting on Oct. 11 “to testify on behalf of the United States.” The potential witnesses are not named, but a copy of the blank subpoena reads that “YOU ARE COMMANDED to appear.”
U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, who is handling the case, was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2008, and he has also been on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court since 2020.
Danchenko, a Russian-born lawyer and researcher who has lived and worked in the Washington, D.C., area for many years, was indicted in November on a charge of lying to the bureau. The trial against him is Durham’s next big test.
Danchenko allegedly relied upon a network of Russian contacts but undermined key collusion claims when interviewed by the FBI. According to Durham’s false statements charges, he anonymously sourced a fabricated claim about Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to longtime Hillary Clinton ally Chuck Dolan, who spent many years doing work for Russian businesses and the Russian government, including in 2016.
