The “PR Executive-1” in special counsel John Durham’s indictment against Christopher Steele source Igor Danchenko has been identified as a longtime Clinton adviser and possible originator of false dossier claims.
Danchenko, a Russian-born lawyer in the United States, was charged on Thursday “with five counts of making false statements to the FBI” that Durham claims he made about the information he provided to Steele for his “Company Reports,” which became the Steele dossier.
One alleged lie was Danchenko denying he spoke with Charles Dolan about anything in the dossier despite a claim from Dolan about Trump’s then-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, making it into the dossier via Danchenko.
Dolan, a longtime ally of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, has been removed from the D.C.-based Kglobal PR firm website, but his LinkedIn lists him as having been a senior vice president at the firm since February 2014.
Durham said Dolan “actively campaigned and participated in calls and events as a volunteer” for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Durham said Dolan “interacted with senior Russian Federation leadership whose names would later appear in the Company Reports” and also “maintained relationships with” Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. and the head of the Russian Embassy’s Economic Section in Washington, D.C., “both of whom also would later appear by name in the Company Reports.”
“Chuck understands and appreciates your interest,” Dolan attorney Ralph Martin told CNBC. “I can confirm that he is PR Executive-1 in the indictment. As he is a witness in an ongoing case, it would not be appropriate for Chuck to comment further on the allegations in the indictment at this time.”
STEELE DOSSIER’S MAIN SOURCE ARRESTED IN DURHAM INVESTIGATION
One of the charges against Danchenko related to Dolan states: “On or about June 15, 2017, the defendant denied to agents of the FBI that he had spoken with PR Executive-1 about any material contained in the Company Reports, when in truth and in fact, and as the defendant well knew, PR Executive-1 was the source for an allegation contained in a Company Report dated August 22, 2016 and was otherwise involved in the events and information described in the reports.”
Durham said, “PR Executive-1’s role as a contributor of information to the Company Reports was highly relevant” because Dolan “maintained pre-existing and ongoing relationships with numerous persons named” in the Steele dossier, including one of Danchenko’s “Russian sub-sources,” believed to be Olga Galkina, and because “PR Executive-1 maintained historical and ongoing involvement in Democratic politics, which bore upon PR Executive-1’s reliability, motivations, and potential bias as a source of information” for the dossier. Durham noted that “certain allegations” that Danchenko provided to Steele and that appeared in the dossier “mirrored and/or reflected information that PR Executive-1 himself also had received through his own interactions with Russian nationals.”
Fiona Hill, who would go on to be a member of Trump’s National Security Council and a Ukraine impeachment witness, introduced Danchenko to Steele in 2010 and then introduced Danchenko to Dolan in about February 2016 “in connection with potential business opportunities.”
Durham indicated Danchenko and Dolan “engaged in discussions regarding potential business collaboration” between Dolan’s firm and Steele’s firm “on issues relating to Russia” beginning in about April 2016.
Dolan allegedly asked Danchenko to assist with an October 2016 conference at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow, a location that would be the source of salacious claims about Trump, and Durham said Dolan attended meetings at the Russian Embassy in the U.S. in 2016.
Durham said Dolan described Danchenko in a June 2016 email as a potential former Russian spy, writing: “He is too young for KGB. But I think he worked for FSB. Since he told me he spent two years in Iran. And when I first met him he knew more about me than I did. [winking emoticon].”
Durham discovered Danchenko was investigated by the FBI as a possible “threat to national security,” according to documents declassified by then-Attorney General William Barr and released in September 2020.
Dolan traveled to Moscow in June 2016 on a planning trip for the October conference, where he stayed in the Moscow hotel. Danchenko was also in Moscow at the time working for Steele and met with Dolan there. Durham said Dolan had a meeting with the general manager of the Moscow hotel and a female hotel staff member to discuss the October conference and received a tour of the hotel, including the presidential suite. Durham noted references to “the Moscow Hotel, the Presidential Suite, and a Moscow Hotel manager and other staff would all later appear in the Company Reports.”
Danchenko visited Dolan and others at the Moscow hotel, and Danchenko flew from Moscow to London to meet with Steele “to provide him with information that would later appear in the Company Reports.”
Durham said Danchenko emailed Dolan in August 2016 to solicit any “thought, rumor, or allegation” about Manafort while informing Dolan that he was working on a “project against Trump.” Dolan wrote back, claiming that “I had a drink with a GOP friend of mine” and making claims about Manafort. The claim made its way into a Steele dossier report within a couple of days. Dolan “later acknowledged to the FBI that he never met with a ‘GOP friend’ in relation to this information that he passed to Danchenko” but had pulled the claim from public news sources.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded Steele’s Democratic-funded dossier played a “central and essential” role in the FBI’s effort to obtain wiretap orders against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Declassified footnotes from Horowitz’s report indicate the bureau became aware that Steele’s dossier may have been compromised by Russian disinformation.
FBI notes of a January 2017 interview with Danchenko showed he told the bureau he “did not know the origins” of some of Steele’s claims and that the most salacious allegations may have been made in “jest.” Horowitz said Danchenko “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier.
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The indictment says Danchenko brokered a meeting between Dolan and his Russian friend, Galkina, “to discuss a potential business relationship.” Durham says Dolan and Galkina “discussed their political views and their support for Hillary Clinton.” Dolan allegedly gifted Galkina an autobiography of Hillary Clinton, which he inscribed with a message, “To my good friend [first name of Russian Sub-Source-1], A Great Democrat.” In July 2016, Galkina allegedly wrote to Dolan, “Tell her please [Clinton] has a big fan in” Russia.
The indictment said Galkina sent a message to another Russian in August 2016 describing Dolan as an “adviser” to Clinton and claimed in September 2016 that Dolan would “take me to the State Department if Hillary wins.” The day before the November 2016 election, Galkina wrote to Dolan, “As a big Hillary fan, I wish her and all her supporters to have a Victory day.”
Galkina signed a June 2021 court affidavit stating that “Igor Danchenko and I have been friends since our teen years” but that “I never gave my permission to Mr Danchenko to publish (or disclose to a third party) any part of our private discussions.” She said, “Mr. Danchenko and I met once in 2016″ and that Danchenko “introduced me to a third party, Charles Dolan, whom he thought could help” with her business efforts. Galkina said that “I did not provide Mr. Danchenko (or anyone else) with any information mentioned in the Dossier and that was connected to” Alfa Bank and said, “I believe that Mr. Danchenko identified me as Sub-Source 3 to create more authoritativeness for his work.”
