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The Final Day of the trial was another strong day for the Prosecution. A day where the Crossfire Hurricane/Mueller teams were not flattered whatsoever, and the good investigative work of one FBI analyst and two FBI agents featured heavily as Special Counsel John Durham, Assistant Special Counsel Michael Keilty, and DOJ Trial Attorney Brittain Shaw concluded their case in chief.
After lunch, Prosecution would rests and the Defense would decide to not even put on a case of their own.
It would go to the jury the following Monday and we would be left wondering,
“Was Danchenko ever really on trial?”
Friday morning, Day Four:
Durham wasn’t quite finished with Special Agent Helson, so he calls him back to the witness stand for further redirect examination. Helson testifies that in his initial discussions with Danchenko, the name Dolan had never come up and Helson was not aware of Dolan.
However, Special Agent Amy Anderson and former FBI Analyst Brittany Hertzog, who were on the Mueller investigative team being run out of FBI Headquarters, had been, “working on some project or some report that involved Mr. Peskov and Dolan.” Special Agent Anderson gave Helson specific questions to pose to Danchenko in regards to Dolan.
On June 15th, 2017, in the last of the three interviews that Helson recorded, he posed these questions. And got nothing.
Danchenko did not reveal his messages or meetings with Dolan, nor did he reveal that information obtained from Dolan had ended up in the Dossier.
Durham then shifts to questions about the three days of interviews with Danchenko in January 2017, and whether Auten discussed with Danchenko a dossier report, 105, and a section titled ‘Election Related Reporting About Paul Manafort.’ Defense had gotten into this in their cross examination and Durham wants to show that Helson was not completely accurate with his answers.
Concerned with where this might be headed, defense counsel initiates a sidebar with the judge and to be honest, it’s all a bit convoluted to me, even with the aid of the transcript. I’m not sure the following questions and answers struck a chord with the jurors who are probably more confused than me since they don’t have the benefit of hearing or reading what was said during the sidebar.
Ultimately, I think the questions Durham ended up asking Helson on this matter fell flat.
However, the final sequence of questions and answers do strike a series of tritones, the notes spiking and ultimately resolving in, I think, a brilliant coda to this witness.
Next up is Brittany Hertzog. Assistant Special Counsel Keilty will be handling this witness. The usual biographical information is gone through and we learn that Ms. Hertzog currently leads a global ethics team at NASDAQ.
Prior to working for NASDAQ, she was at the FBI as an intelligence analyst assigned to the Directorate of Intelligence out of HQ from 2008 to 2019. Her primary focus was Russian counterintelligence. In Summer of 2017, she was assigned to the Mueller Special Counsel investigation. She was brought in by her supervisor, Brian Auten.
After joining the Mueller SCO, she was brought up to speed and given the task of “looking into” the Steele Dossier.
Ms. Hertzog was doing real work to investigate the sourcing of the dossier. It’s notable to me how much information she sourced from FBI databases and “holding” as she put it. I wonder how much of it was already there, how much came from Danchenko, and if anyone else had been digging on Dolan and Galkina?
I would be very interested in learning when Hertzog and Anderson became interested in Dolan. We know that information Danchenko gave on Dolan lead to an FBI investigative referral in January of 2018.
Whoa.
Here we go, now things are getting spicy!
The FBI has an electronic filing system called ‘Sentinel’ and you will sometimes see filings referred to as ‘electronic communications’ or ‘EC’s.
Hertzog took the information she had gathered and composed a case file on Olga Galkina. The information she had on Dolan was included in this file. Such was her concern with these individuals, she ‘serialized’ or filed it in three different places.
The WFO, HQ, and the IG. Even after the SCO instructed them, “not to take further action on the matter involving Mr. Dolan and Mr. Danchenko's relationship…” Brittany Hertzog was undeterred and sent up a flare in three places.
Filing with the IG was particularly clever.
Boom.
Unlike the previous witnesses, Hertzog is, for obvious reasons, “friendly” to the prosecution and Keilty treated her accordingly. Direct examination didn’t last long, but was significant. And not specifically to this case. She wasn’t up there to convict Danchenko, but rather the FBI, Dolan, Galkina, and Danchenko.
Her testimony didn't really add anything to Danchenko's 1001 charge, but it did add to a larger case against agents in the Crossfire Hurricane, Mueller SCO, WFO, and FBI HQ and against the “joint venture conspiracy.”
This may be Durham foreshadowing. Literally. He keeps telling the story of the ‘Crime of the Century” in these indictments and filings. Good storytelling requires some foreshadowing.
Mr. Onorato conducts a very short cross examination of Ms. Hertzog.
And then Keilty is up for redirect.
And that’s it for Ms. Hertzog.
Next up is FBI Special Agent Amy Anderson. Defense objects to her testifying on the grounds that it will be nearly identical to what Hertzog just testified to and therefore, cumulative.
Judge Trenga indicates he’d like to hear from the witness, but advises Durham to keep the questions and answers to “what we haven’t already heard.”
Ms. Anderson has not yet arrived at the court so they take their morning break at this point.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Amy Anderson is on the stand now. DOJ Trial Attorney Brittain Shaw will be handling direct examination.
Ms. Anderson began work at the FBI in 2010. She started in San Diego, then transferred to New York. In 2016 she was promoted to supervisory special agent and assigned to FBI Headquarters in DC where she worked in the Counterintelligence Division, Counterespionage Section. In April of 2017 she was placed on the Crossfire Hurricane/Mueller Special Counsel. She moved off that assignment and back to FBI HQ in January 2018.
She has done counterintelligence work her entire career, specifically Russian counterintelligence work.
In January 2022 Ms. Anderson was promoted to ALAT (assistant legal attache) at the US Embassy in Ottawa.
Her first assignment as part of the Crossfire Hurricane team was to “validate the Steele Dossier… There was a lot of reporting out there that we needed to determine if it was true or not.”
Ms. Shaw runs through the various players we are all familiar with by now and then gets to the important questions.
Not the first time that one of the lawyers from the Durham SCO has brought up location of a person involved in this “joint venture conspiracy.” I think it is for a reason. It could just be as relates to this case, and nothing more.
We know that Dolan and Danchenko met in person in a park near Falls Church, Virginia on January 1st, 2017. We also know that they had breakfast and or lunch together a number of times. A case against Dolan would be brought in the Eastern District of Virginia, I would think.
Anyway, back to the transcript.
That contradicts filings by the defense and some testimony from Helson, I think. Either Anderson was never informed of what was learned about Dolan from Danchenko OR she left the investigation and went back to HQ before Danchenko was forthcoming with it.
Defense objects to this on hearsay grounds. After a short sidebar the judge agrees. Ms. Anderson stating what she was told about Dolan by Galkina is hearsay.
But I think we all know that is true, nonetheless.
Dolan, a Clinton Crony, was a source for the Steele Dossier.
Here are some interesting lines from the sidebar.
The judge strikes the last part of Ms. Anderson’s answer to the previous questions due to hearsay. Ms. Shaw continues the direct examination.
I wonder if Joe Nelson has interviewed with the OIG and/or Durham SCO?
And that would have been HUGE! Ms. Anderson, like Ms. Hertzog, figured out a massive section of the criminal conspiracy early on and tried to get their superiors onboard with investigating Galkina and Dolan. Their superiors were nonresponsive, it seems.
This trial is less about Igor Danchenko and more about the FBI and Chuck Dolan.
Mr. Onorato is up now for cross examination of Ms. Anderson.
Just want to add here that the jury later asks to see Exhibit 103. This is Defense Exhibit 103, these are notes form Helson’s interview of Danchenko in June 2017 and this document was admitted into evidence.
What the jury later asks for is Government Exhibit 103, notes from Helson’s interview with Danchenko in November 2017, which is not in evidence.
Boom.
Told y’all weeks ago that Danchenko had flipped on Dolan. This is STRONG evidence that he in fact did.
The Russian misinformation came from Clinton Crony Chuck Dolan! Defense hammering the FBI here via Ms. Anderson. But it’s not really an attack on her, it’s on the people who prepared the FISA warrant(s) on Carter Page.
Ms. Shaw is now up for a quick redirect.
So, Hertzog filed an EC on Galkina in three places in the hopes someone would take notice and begin proper investigative steps Galkina and Dolan.
Anderson submitted a memo on Dolan to her superiors hoping that investigative steps would be taken on Dolan.
We know that eventually Dolan would be investigated by the FBI and that he is now a subject of the Durham SCO.
Ms Hertzog and Ms. Anderson’s work was not in vain.
The final witness is Special Agent Ryan James.
Durham is up.
James worked at an investment firm in Chicago before becoming a police officer and then joining the FBI in 2009. He was assigned to the New Haven, Connecticut office and remained there until September of 2018 when he was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent and moved to the Jackson, Mississippi field office. He currently supervises, “a squad of agents that investigate public corruption and civil rights violations.”
In February of 2021, James was assigned to the Inspection Division of the FBI at the Hoover Building Headquarters. He wasn’t there for long, though, as in May of 2021 he was pulled in by the Durham SCO to work on the Danchenko case.
Turns out, James and the investigators he works with got the Amrtrak, phone, toll, and other records which have featured in this case and trial.
Durham moves Exhibit 607, a portion of the Danchenko Facebook records obtained by James and his team, into evidence. He’s also going to pull up Exhibit 1400 which is already in evidence.
James did solid investigative work and Durham is about to present a chunk of it to the jury.
Durham pulls up Exhibit 1400, which shows travel records.
According to his flight records, Millian was not in America from July 14th, 2016 thru July 27, 2016.
Durham now grabs Exhibit 503, a portion of Millian’s Verizon records.
Durham now presents exhibit 1604, which is a chart James helped prepare containing Dolan and Danchenko’s phone records. It covers March 2016 thru January 2017.
Durham present exhibit 607, a portion of Danchenko’s Facebook records.
Durham moves another portion of Facebook records into evidence, exhibit 618.
Durham goes to exhibit 1603, phone records and admits them into evidence.
Bit of a hiccup here, as the exhibit contains the names of phone numbers of other individuals not relevant to this case. Both counsels have this exhibit and both failed to properly redact them, so both are now doing so.
While the redactions are made, Durham stalls for time by asking James how he acquired the info in the exhibit.
Redactions are now complete and exhibit 1603 is admitted and then published for the jury to see. James explains to the jury how to read the chart, answers a few questions from Durham, and then we get to the good stuff.
Durham asks and James explains call listed as either from a contact of Danchenko’s, such as Galkina, Dolan, Steele, OR a telemarketing call, OR an ‘unavailable’ number. The latter category of call denotes calls from numbers which either a cannot be connected to a carrier or who’s information has been deleted from the carrier’s records. None of these calls lasted more than one minute, so they are not matches for the so called ‘anonymous’ 10-15minute call from someone Danchenko “believed to be” Sergei Millian.
I’d guess this 41minute call is from Steele, but neither Durham nor James specifically said that.
Court takes a lunch break at this point and when they come back the Defense decides not to cross examine this witness.
Durham rests his case.
Defense would decide to not even present a case in chief. They rested as well.
Probably because, as we have come to learn by studying the details of this case and trial, Danchenko wasn’t really on trial here.
The FBI were. The Steele Dossier was. And Clinton Crony Chuck Dolan may soon be.
Later on Friday afternoon, Judge Trenga would dismiss Count One of the indictment against Igor Danchenko. Here are the judge’s reasons for doing so.
Counts Two thru Five were turned over to the Jury the following Monday and by Tuesday evening the jury returned a Not Guilty verdict.
Parting thoughts:
The person most capable of making sure Danchenko went to jail was Sergei Millian.
Had Millian travelled to the U.S. to testify, to state that he never contacted Danchenko, that he never called him from any phone line or app, that he never arranged to meet him in New York, well that would have gone further with the jury than the sum of the evidence in this case ever had a chance of going.
Absent testimony from Millian, convicting Danchenko on these charges was a near impossibility in my opinion because there was always going to be reasonable doubt. And the jury must have wondered why Millian wasn’t there to state that he never contacted Danchenko.
Millians fear for his safety and his concern that the FBI would arrest him if he returned to the U.S. may be well founded, though.
If the FBI had done a better job with the Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller investigation, a conviction would have been more likely. Specifically, if Helson had been better informed by Auten and others he might have asked better, more narrow questions of Danchenko. Then again, Helson made many errors on his own as regards his handling of Danchenko so maybe he wouldn’t have.
So, Igor Danchenko has been found Not Guilty, but was a Guilty verdict really Durham’s objective with this case?
Was Danchenko ever really on trial?
Let’s zoom out and consider the Durham Special Counsel’s work and where it may be headed.
If Clinesmith had gotten the full measure of the potential sentence under 18 USC 1001 (False Statements), which would be Five Years Imprisonment plus a fine, how much would that have mattered to you?
If Sussmann had gotten the same, five years in prison plus a fine, how much of a win would that have been?
If Danchenko gets even half the available maximum sentence, ~12yrs in prison plus fine, would you regard that as a knockout blow to the Deep State?
The convictions of the minor players would be nice, I’d celebrate it bigly, but it wouldn’t carry forward the overall dismantling of the Deep State and Swamp nearly as much as what we HAVE gotten out of these cases.
Clinesmith got a deal because he talked. And because he sent both an altered and unaltered email. He didn’t select which one was used and passed on.
The Sussmann case forever DESTROYED the Alfa Bank Hoax, got Marc Elias, Robby Mook, and a number of other people (including FBI Agents) before a grand jury and on the witness stand. Mook admitted Hillary approved the sharing of the hoax with corrupt media. We learned of Joffe (who is still under investigation) and his companies, the researchers, the spying on the EOP, and we got FBI agents on the stand where we learned they too were under investigation. Most importantly, the Sussmann case/trial busted down the attorney-client privilege wall that these corrupt people have used for decades to hide their criminality.
The Danchenko case is no different.
Here are some of the most significant notables we got out of the Danchenko case and trial:
- The Steele Dossier and its allegations are DEAD. The claims were made up and that is a matter of record now. Dolan admitted to fabricating his part and Danchenko never met with the manager of the Ritz-Carlton. Danchenko, over the course of 3.5yrs as a CHS, could not provide ANY corroboration. Furthermore Christopher Steele, who composed the dossier, could not corroborate any piece of info in it. Not even for $1,000,000.
That’s FULL exoneration for Trump.
- A year after offering that $1mil to Steele, the FBI turned Danchenko against Steele and sent him back in, to meet with Steele. The objective being to gather intel on what Steele was up to and any other useful info.
- Chuck Dolan, Clinton Crony and longtime Democrat operative, was referred for an investigation thanks to information Danchenko gave the FBI. That investigation was opened and as part of it, Dolan’s email, phone, and social media records were obtained via search warrant.
That investigation was later turned over and is now with the Durham Special Counsel.
- Durham put the FBI on trial via the agents he put on the stand. SIA Brian Auten was subjected to two full days of questiong, none of it friendly. We learned of the Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller SCO failures. We also learned that Auten has been under investigation by the OIG for some time.
He has been recommended for suspension for his role in the Carter Page FISA.
- Likewise with Special Agent Helson, Danchenko’s handler. He was also forced to admit to failures in regards to handling Danchenko, though there were also successes as far as the information he sold the FBI as a CHS.
Helson is also a subject of an OIG investigation.
- Durham, via the investigation and prosecution of Danchenko, obtained a large number of interviews and testimony with Spygate players major and minor. He also got phone, email, social media, and travel records.
Being that Danchenko was in direct contact with so many consequential people as relates to Spygate, I wonder what else Durham learned from such records?
The Danchenko case has given us the REAL Russian collusion, which was between Hillary, the Dems, their PR firms, Steele, and the Ukrainian-Born, suspected Russian asset Danchenko and his source, Russian Swamp loving Chuck Dolan.
This is mob trial stuff. Durham is working his way up. Getting the right people before grand juries, on witness stands, getting the docs, and getting the filings and evidence he NEEDS in the court record for future prosecutions of corrupt players higher up.
Dismantling a criminal syndicate cannot be done within just one trial. It takes many investigations, many cases, many trials. Danchenko is an important one, but it is just one of many.
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Excellent. I read it and I completely agree. It’s never been about the pee-ons. It’s always been about taking down the cabal. Only way to take them down is to pull the threads from the bottom and unravel it all! 👏 great job!
More BOOMS thand a chili cookoff!!! 👍🏻👍🏻