Judge says Durham can keep his witness list secret for Danchenko trial

A federal judge on Friday said special counsel John Durham can keep his list of witnesses under wraps ahead of the criminal trial against a Russian analyst who was a key source for a now-debunked 2016 linking former President Donald Trump to Russia.

The one-page order from U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga did not explain the reasoning behind his decision. It came just hours after Mr. Durham asked to keep his witness list under seal until Monday, one day before the trial of Igor Danchenko is scheduled to begin.

“Given that this case has garnered significant media attention, the government is concerned about the potential harassment of its witnesses, should they be identified this far in advance of trial,” Mr. Durham wrote.

Mr. Durham added that he had already disclosed the witness list to Mr. Danchenko’s legal team, which did not object to sealing it.

Mr. Danchenko was a key source for the dossier of unverified and often salacious allegations against Mr. Trump that were compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Mr. Danchenko is facing five counts of lying to the FBI about how he compiled the information he turned over to Mr. Steele.

Those unproven allegations ended up in the so-called Steele dossier and became part of the basis for the FBI’s surveillance warrants for Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

Prosecutors say those allegations were based on exaggerations, rumors, and outright lies. Conversations that Mr. Danchenko purportedly had with sources that either did not happen or came from elsewhere, according to court documents.

Some of the material compiled by Mr. Danchenko came from Charles Dolan, a public relations executive with longstanding ties with Hillary Clinton, prosecutors said. Instead, Mr. Danchenko told FBI officials that information came from high-level Russians with connections to the Kremlin, court documents say.

Defense attorneys have said that the charges against Mr. Danchenko should be dropped because his answers were “literally true” in response to narrow questions from FBI agents. For example, Mr. Danchenko denied speaking with Mr. Dolan since he communicated through email exchanges with the Clinton operative.

In another instance, prosecutors allege that Mr. Danchenko made up a phone call that he claimed came from Sergei Millian, a Russia-U.S. chamber of commerce leader.

Defense attorneys say the information was relayed to Mr. Danchenko in an anonymous phone call from someone believed to be Mr. Millian. They say the government can’t prove that the defendant made a false statement if he believed it was true.