(PatriotWise.com)- The Department of Justice was expected to produce a “large volume” of classified discovery this week in Special Counsel John Durham’s case against Igor Y. Danchenko, the main source for the debunked “Steele Dossier.” However, last week, Special Counsel Durham requested the judge extend the deadline until May.
In a filing last Tuesday, Durham had asked the judge for a deadline extension on the production of the classified discovery citing both the Classified Information Procedures Act and the delays caused by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to the filing, the DOJ has produced more than 60,000 documents in unclassified discovery. The government has been working with “appropriate declassification authorities” to produce the documents in an unclassified format. However, “recent world events” have caused delays in that procedure, so Durham requested additional time for the DOJ to produce the classified discovery.
The deadline was initially set for Tuesday, March 29, but Special Counsel Durham asked the court to extend the deadline until May 13.
A Eurasia political risk, defense, and economics analyst, Igor Danchenko, was identified in July 2020 as Christopher Steele’s primary source for the now-debunked dossier. Danchenko previously told the FBI that he obtained the information by “word of mouth and hearsay” from “sub-sources” in Russia.
For misleading officials in 2017 about the sources of the information he supplied to Steele, Danchenko was charged in November of last year with five counts of making false statements to the FBI.
According to the indictment, Danchenko’s lies “were material to the FBI” because the agency largely relied on the Steele dossier to obtain FISA warrants to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The FBI’s investigation “devoted substantial resources attempting to investigate and corroborate the allegations” made in the dossier, the indictment states, including whether Danchenko’s Russian sources were reliable.
Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In December, Danchenko signed a waiver agreeing to be represented by the same law firm that is representing defendants who worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, despite the conflict of interest that could pose.
The dossier compiled by Danchenko’s questionable “sources” was subsequently exposed as a collection of fabricated stories and lies.
