Sky News reported that the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday the arrest of a Russian analyst who was one of the sources for a former British spy who gathered unverified information linking Donald Trump to the Kremlin during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. A grand jury charged Igor Danchenko (43 years old) with perjury and accused him of lying to federal investigators five times in 2017 regarding "certain sources of information he provided" to former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, according to a statement from the department.
The charges against Danchenko are part of an investigation led by Special Counsel John Durham, appointed at the end of Trump's presidency, to examine how the FBI handled the "Russian investigation" and its origins. Donald Trump has long denounced these investigations, which began during the 2016 presidential campaign, concerning potential collusion between the real estate mogul and Russia, calling them a "witch hunt" orchestrated by his opponents. He believes that the "Steele report" played a key role in this matter.
Commissioned by the Democratic camp during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, Christopher Steele gathered unverified intelligence linking the Republican candidate to Russia. His report, which included unverified salacious allegations and others that turned out to be false, was published on BuzzFeed's website ten days before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. Steele had previously sent it to the FBI, which based certain excerpts to place close associates of the Republican billionaire under surveillance. However, the FBI investigation had begun earlier, based on information obtained from intelligence agencies.
In May 2017, this investigation was assigned to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who concluded, after two years of inquiry, that there was sufficient evidence of Russian interference in the campaign but not "enough evidence" of collusion between Russia and those around Trump.
