Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson (Credit: public domain)
“Republican senators are demanding answers on why the Russian national who served as the sub-source for the debunked anti-Trump dossier was hired by the FBI as a confidential human source and paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars throughout the bureau’s original investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital and sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, are seeking all FBI and Justice Department records related to government payments to Igor Danchenko, along with the counterintelligence concerns he posed and the bureau’s decision to rely on him as a source.
(…) Despite the FBI paying Danchenko to serve as a confidential human source during the Trump administration—and during Special Counsel, Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election—Danchenko was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011.
That FBI investigation into Danchenko focused on his contacts with suspected Russian intelligence officers and reported attempts to facilitate payments for classified information.
“The FBI, even in light of the extensive derogatory information attached to Danchenko, proceeded to pay him as a confidential human source three months later from March 2017 to October 2020 as part of Crossfire Hurricane,” Grassley and Johnson wrote to Garland. “Therefore, while we were investigating the Justice Department’s and FBI’s misconduct with respect to Crossfire Hurricane, you maintained him on the government’s payroll.”
They added: “This extraordinary fact pattern requires additional information from the Justice Department and FBI relating to why Danchenko was placed on the payroll and paid by the taxpayer to assist in the federal government’s flawed investigation into President Trump.”
Grassley and Johnson demanded all records related to government payments made to Danchenko, the counterintelligence investigation into him, and his later hiring by the FBI by Oct. 22.” (Read more: Fox News, 9/26/2022) (Archive)