The Danchenko misdirection in Russia scam

 Paul Sperry, via Sharyl Attkisson:

In January 2017, Igor Danchenko, a primary source for the Steele dossier, told FBI officials in a debriefing that one of his sources for derogatory information about Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia was merely an anonymous voice on the other end of a phone call that lasted 10-15 minutes.

The voice, Danchenko claimed, was someone he assumed to be Sergei Millian, an immigrant from Belarus, president and founder of an organization called the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. As thin as that sourcing sounds, the truth appears to be worse. According to a new criminal indictment, Danchenko lied to FBI agents: There was no voice and there was no phone call. The Russian national made it all up.

Still, the FBI continued to use Danchenko’s supposed source’s claims of a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between Russia and Trump to convince a secret federal court to allow investigators to electronically monitor at least one Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, whom the FBI accused of masterminding the conspiracy based on Danchenko's dubious claims. Agents swore in court documents reviewed by RealClearInvestigations that Danchenko was “truthful and cooperative,” even after discovering he misled them regarding his allegedly well-placed source.

The combination of Danchenko reporting a “conspiracy” and the FBI vouching for his credibility persuaded the powerful Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize wiretapping Page as a suspected Russian agent for almost a year. Page was never charged and is now suing the FBI and Justice Department for $75 million.

Special Counsel John Durham detailed the alleged dossier fiction in a grand jury indictment unsealed last week charging Danchenko with five felony counts of lying to the FBI — four of which relate to the invented phone call with Millian, a New York Realtor who was in reality a big fan of  Trump.

“Danchenko never received such a phone call or such information from any person he believed to be [Millian], and Danchenko never made any arrangements to meet [Millian],”  the indictment states. “Danchenko fabricated these facts."

...

There is much more.

This looks like a clever part of the scam trying to tie the hoax to a friend of Trump.  What other people who were in on the scam knew about this aspect of it?  What communications did Danchenko have with Clinton and her lawyers about this aspect of the story?  Did Steele bother to do any due diligence and contact people like Millian to verify the story?

See, also:

Dems' Russia-ruse exposed: The Durham indictments explained 
Understanding the Durham indictments: What you need to know

And: 

Discredited anti-Trump Steele dossier was embraced by liberal media: Here are five of the biggest offenders 
Dossier painted former-President Trump as a sexual deviant compromised by Russia

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