Main Steele Dossier Researcher Arrested in Durham Probe

 The primary researcher behind the Steele Dossier, a collection of unsubstantiated opposition research linking the 2016 Trump campaign to the Kremlin, was arrested by federal authorities Thursday.

Russia analyst Igor Danchenko’s indictment stems from the federal probe led by John Durham, the special counsel tapped by the Trump administration to audit the Russia investigation for malfeasance, anonymous individuals with direct knowledge of the matter told the New York Times.

In the months following the 2016 election, it was determined that many of the claims made by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who hired Danchenko, were either unverified or erroneous. The dossier created the collusion allegation that Trump “accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.”

Steele was later accused of peddling a hoax of Russian election interference to undermine Trump’s campaign with his dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign through its law firm Perkins Coie.

Perkins Coie employed Clinton campaign lawyer and former federal prosecutor Michael Sussmann, who Durham recently charged for allegedly making a false statement to the FBI concerning the Trump Organization’s use of a secret server to communicate with Kremlin-connected Russian bank Alfa Bank.