Judge Rules Against Defendant’s Request for Dismissal in Durham Case

Durham’s indictment accused the Russian of lying about the credibility and identity of his sources. Among the issues noted by the special counsel is that Democratic operative Charles Dolan along with the Clinton campaign was, in fact, his main source.

Attorney Stuart Sears demanded Thursday all charges against Danchenko should be dropped because his answers to the FBI were “literally true.” Danchenko denied “talking” to Dolan when interviewed by the FBI, which Sears said was a true statement. The Russian analyst had email exchanges with Dolan but claimed the two never spoke in an oral conversation.

“It was a bad question,” Sears stated, “but that’s the special counsel’s problem, not Danchenko’s.”

The special prosecutor also charged Danchenko with lying about contacts with Belarusian businessman Sergei Millian when he was questioned by the FBI.

Millian reportedly remained in contact with Trump during the 2016 campaign after earlier conducting real estate work with the Trump Organization. During a voluntary interview with the FBI, Danchenko claimed he had spoken on the phone with Millian in July 2016, who told him the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians to steal the 2016 election. Danchenko passed that information to Steele who included it in his dirty dossier.

Danchenko’s defense argued Thursday their client told the FBI he only “believed” Millian was the source of the phone call. The government cannot prove it was a false statement if Danchenko really believed it was true, Sears argued.

Trump’s defense team argues his claims of election fraud are not crimes because he truly believes he won the 2020 general election. That defense would undermine multiple state and federal probes of the 45th president’s acts since then.