A federal judge on Friday dismissed one of the five criminal charges special counsel John Durham lodged against Russian analyst Igor Dancehnko before sending the remaining four charges to a jury.
U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga ruled that Mr. Durham didn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Danchenko, a prime source for the anti-Trump dossier that helped spur the FBI’s Trump-Russia collusion probe, lied to the FBI during a June 15, 2017 interview.
Judge Trenga threw out one of the five counts of lying to the FBI after concluding that Mr. Durham’s team did not offer sufficient evidence to prove Mr. Danchenko lied to investigators during the meeting. He said the decision to toss the charge is because the FBI’s question about whether Mr. Danchenko “talked” with Democratic operative Charles Dolan Jr. was imprecisely worded.
The dismissed count alleged that Mr. Danchenko lied when he told FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson that he “talked” with Mr. Dolan in 2016 about information that ultimately ended up in the Steele dossier when the pair exchanged emails.
“That the FBI wanted to obtain as much information as possible doesn’t change the meaning of the words used,” Judge Trenga said from the bench. “Here the government has not presented any evidence that Mr. Danchenko understood the word ’talk’ to mean more than the standard accepted meaning.”
He added that the standard definition of talk means “spoken speech,” so it is “literally true” that sending an email does not meet the definition of talking. Thus, “criminal liability,” cannot apply, the judge said.
He said that the burden fell on the FBI to pin Mr. Danchenko down and criminal charges for false statements cannot stand based on “loosely construed” statements.
During the trial that began Tuesday, prosecutors presented evidence that showed Mr. Dolan gave Mr. Dancheko information about Paul Manafort, chairman of former President Trump’s 2016 campaign, that found its way into the Steele report.
The dossier attributes that information to “an American political figure associated with Donald Trump.” Mr. Dolan testified this week that he lied to Mr. Danchenko and that he learned of the information by watching a cable news show.
Mr. Danchenko is now facing four counts of lying to the FBI and a jury will return to an Alexandria, Virginia, courthouse on Monday to decide his fate. He faces up to five years in prison for each of the four remaining counts.
Closing arguments are set to begin Monday. Mr. Danchenko’s attorneys did not present any evidence or call any witnesses, instead arguing that Judge Trenga should dismiss the case.
Prosecutors called six witnesses, including Mr. Dolan and Mr. Helson, over roughly four days.
The decision is a huge embarrassment for Mr. Durham, who earlier this year saw his case against Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann rejected by a Washington jury.
Mr. Durham has prosecuted three cases stemming from his probe. His prosecution of low-level FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith for falsifying evidence resulted in a guilty plea and no jail time, while Mr. Sussmann was acquitted. He’s already been struck a key blow in his case against Mr. Danchenko.
Mr. Trump and his allies had hoped Mr. Durham would expose a far-left conspiracy within the bureau and other U.S. intelligence agencies to sabotage Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and undermine his presidency. Those hopes have been dashed.
Mr. Durham is expected to produce a report for the Justice Department with his conclusions. It is up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide if the report will be made public.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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