John Durham argued Friday that lies Igor Danchenko told the FBI, in particular misleading on the salacious and unfounded “pee tape” allegations about former President Donald Trump, be allowed as evidence at his trial next month.
The Russian-born lawyer, who was the main source for Christopher Steele’s discredited Trump dossier, has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to the FBI.
Durham said Friday he wants to use other falsehoods he believes Danchenko told the bureau, but that were not in the indictment, during the October trial.
Danchenko’s team contended in court filings that Durham “misrepresented” the facts on where the defendant first learned of the salacious allegations, claiming his friend “I.V.” first told him before he tried to confirm the claims with Moscow hotel managers in June 2016.
“This argument is nothing more than a red herring designed to deflect attention from the most salient aspect of this issue – that the Steele Reports and the defendant himself asserted that he (the defendant) met with the hotel managers of the Ritz Carlton and discussed these allegations in June 2016,” Durham replied. “The Government intends to present evidence that undermines the defendant’s claim that he met with the hotel managers about this issue.”
DURHAM WANTS TO USE MESSAGES FROM FBI ANALYST EMBROILED IN HUNTER BIDEN SAGA
According to Durham’s indictment, Danchenko lied to the FBI about a phone call he claimed he received from Sergei Millian, an American citizen born in Belarus who Danchenko claimed told him about a debunked conspiracy of cooperation between Trump and the Russians. The indictment also said Danchenko anonymously sourced a fabricated claim about Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort to Hillary Clinton ally Chuck Dolan, who spent years, including 2016, doing work in Russia.
On Friday, Durham reiterated plans to call Bernd Kuhlen, general manager of the hotel in 2016, who will testify he has no recollection of meeting Danchenko, no knowledge of the salacious allegations attributed to him, and was the only “western” senior hotel staff member.
“It strains credulity … to believe that Ritz Carlton managers — with no apparent relationship to the defendant — would confirm lurid sexual allegations about a U.S. presidential candidate to a guest, let alone a stranger off the street,” the special counsel wrote.
Danchenko’s statements about Kuhlen, and other Ritz managers, are “highly material” to the indictment.
Beyond the alleged falsehoods about the Ritz Carlton, Durham wants to include lies he says Danchenko told the FBI about never informing anyone that he worked for Steele, as well as an email Danchenko sent to a former employer advising him to fabricate sources of information when necessary.
Danchenko’s lawyers posted their own Friday filing, continuing to argue that the indictment against their client be dismissed by the judge.
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Durham has argued that Danchenko’s alleged lies about the dossier mattered and that the falsehoods affected the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.
