The FBI analyst accused of wrongly labeling evidence about Hunter Biden as disinformation has been linked to special counsel John Durham‘s upcoming trial.
FBI supervisory intelligence agent Brian Auten opened in August 2020 the assessment that was later used by the agency, according to whistleblower disclosures received by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Auten also interviewed Igor Danchenko, the alleged main source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier. The bureau agent was the unnamed “Supervisory Intel Agent” identified in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse.
Danchenko, a Russian-born lawyer, was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI, which Durham says he made about information he provided to Steele for his dossier. Auten was among the FBI employees who interviewed him in January 2017, when Danchenko undercut collusion claims. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is in October.
The Russian lawyer was interviewed by the FBI in January, March, and May 2017. Horowitz said Danchenko’s January 2017 interview with FBI officials, including Auten, “raised doubts about the reliability of Steele’s descriptions of information.”
WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY EVIDENCE ON HUNTER BIDEN WRONGLY LABELED ‘DISINFO’ INSIDE FBI
Auten was also involved in reviewing the flawed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications and renewals targeting Trump campaign associate Carter Page, which relied on the dossier.
“We believe the Supervisory Intel Analyst … should have noticed and advised others about the conflicting information, given he participated in the January 2017 Primary Sub-source [Danchenko] interview, helped supervise the team’s evaluation of the Steele reporting, and played a supportive role in the preparation of the prior FISA applications,” Horowitz concluded in his report.
“Instead … the Supervisory Intel Analyst circulated a 2-page intelligence memorandum to senior FBI officials highlighting aspects of the Primary Sub-source’s account but failed to advise them of the inconsistencies between Steele and his Primary Sub-source on, among other things, the key allegations against Page.”
The DOJ watchdog LAO said Danchenko “made statements indicating that Steele misstated or exaggerated” dossier claims, including saying the allegation about Trump’s activities at the Ritz Carlton in Moscow in 2013 was “rumor and speculation.”
Despite this, Auten told Horowitz that he did not have any “pains or heartburn” about the accuracy of Steele’s claims.
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Danchenko’s trial comes after Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann was found not guilty in May on a false statements charge of concealing his representation of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign from the FBI when he pushed since-debunked Trump-Russia collusion claims about Alfa-Bank to the bureau in 2016.
The special counsel has obtained one guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted he falsified a document during the bureau’s efforts to renew FISA surveillance authority against Page. Clinesmith wrote in 2017 that Page was “not a source” for the CIA when Page was indeed an operational contact for them.
