The FBI Literally Paid For Russian Disinformation, Court Filing Reveals

The FBI paid a Russian source for former British spy Christopher Steele’s notorious “Steele dossier” who allegedly lied to the bureau, a court document shows.

Russian Virginia resident Igor Danchenko was indicted in November for making false statements to the FBI on five occasions between June and November 2017 about sources of information he gave to Steele’s firm Orbis Business Solutions, which put the information in reports sent to the bureau. The FBI signed Danchenko up as a paid confidential source in March of that year before ending the source relationship in October 2020, according to Special Counsel John Durham’s motion for the Eastern District of Virginia’s U.S. District Court on admitting and excluding certain evidence from his trial.

The dossier was a primary source for now-debunked allegations that the Trump campaign engaged in 2016 election inference conspiracy with Russia, and the FBI relied heavily on it in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

The FBI and an attorney for Danchenko did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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