A jury in Virginia acquitted Russian analyst Igor Danchenko Tuesday on all charges of lying to the FBI in its investigation into the origins of Trump-Russia probe, in a stunning setback for special counsel John Durham.
Danchenko was a primary source of British spy Christopher Steele's dossier on Donald Trump and Russia ties of people in his circle before the 2020 election.
He was accused of lying to the FBI as agents sought to verify information included in the infamous dossier, which included salacious and unverified allegations about Trump's alleged conduct in a Moscow hotel room – information Trump repeatedly denied.
The verdict came in a trial that provided a series of revelations about the creation of the dossier as well as the FBI's own information gathering techniques – including testimony that the FBI offered to pay Steele, a former British intelligence officer, $1 million in cash to prove the unsubstantiated allegations within it.
