The biggest bombshell in the case was that former British spy Christopher Steele was offered as much as $1M to corroborate information in his dossier.
AFBI agent and a former FBI analyst each said Friday in Special Counsel John Durham’s trial for Russian information specialist Igor Danchenko that bureau agents in the so-called Russia collusion probe named Crossfire Hurricane, then the Mueller team that took over the investigation never interviewed a Democrat operative central to the Danchenko case.
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in 2017 to look into possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, a probe that started as the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane.
The two FBI employees, ex-analyst Brittany Hertzog and agent Amy Anderson, also said at the trial, in federal court in northern Virginia, each wanted to interview the operative, Charles Dolan, but never got the opportunity.
Danchenko was initially indicted on five charges of lying the FBI about two sources – Dolan and U.S.-Belarus businessman Sergei Millian. He allegedly used both in connection with the so-called Steele dossier, which essentially amounted to opposition research on then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and which has since been largely discredited.
Danchenko contributed about 80% of the content to the dossier.
Hertzog testified Friday that she uploaded three case files on Dolan so that the Justice Department inspector general’s office, the FBI’s Washington field office and the FBI headquarters could clearly see that Dolan had not been interviewed and possibly take action.
Later in Friday’s proceedings, FBI special agent Amy Anderson, who was a supervisory agent on Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller teams, said she also wanted to look into Dolan, and that Hertzog and FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten also were interested in Dolan.
