A Few Observations Re The Danchenko Indictment

So, the Danchenko indictment has turned out to be a bigger bit of news than anticipated. The reason it’s a big story, from my point of view is as follows.

We’ve known for a long time that Danchenko was central to the concoction of the Steele dossier. Nevertheless, the major blame for what was done with the “dossier” rests with people higher up the ladder, up the Clinton Russia Hoax hierarchy, than Danchenko. What’s big in what we’ve learned from the indictment is that among other reasons for Danchenko’s lies to the FBI was his desire to cover up the key role of a Clinton campaign “advisor”, Charles “Chuck” Dolan, Jr., aka “PR Executive-1”.

The revelation of Dolan’s role potentially establishes a direct link between the Clinton Campaign and the actual concoction of the “dossier”. How direct and strong that link is remains to be seen, but my guess is that Dolan—with his strong Clintonite past—will have had fairly close contact with major figures in the Clinton Campaign. Note that Durham quotes Danchenko’s emails. Anyone who thinks Durham hasn’t obtained every Dolan communication he can lay his hands on (via GJ subpoena) needs to reexamine that notion. As soon as Durham found out that Dolan was a key behind the “dossier” Dolan had to have become a strong focus for the investigation. That means finding out whom he communicated with, and when he communicated with them. Elias? Sussmann? Glenn Simpson? Jake Sullivan? And etc.? I sure wouldn’t bet against Dolan having had extensive communications with all the above. If so, some of those people may see the hammer of doom hovering over their pointy little heads. The strong likelihood is that those communications would have been with regard to Russia Hoax—and quite possibly and specifically—”dossier” related matters. After all, that seems to have been Dolan’s baby.

In addition, the indictment serves as a reminder. It’s a reminder that, as of January, 2017, at the latest the top management of the Russia Hoax at the FBI knew that the “dossier” was—for purposes of its use in affidavits—hopeless bullsh*t. For any use in, well, let’s suppose, FISA applications and their attached affidavits?  The knowledge they had would have rendered the “dossier” material utterly toxic. The indictment today is a reminder that Durham hasn’t somehow forgotten about the Carter Page FISA applications. The real question remaining is: Just who in the FBI and DoJ knew how bad this “dossier” really was? For example, recall that Andrew Weissmann participated with Steele in what sure looks to have been a FISA brainstorming session, with Bruce Ohr and other key Russia Hoax/Mueller players present. Later, Weissmann was a top guy on Team Mueller when the final FISA was submitted—months after the “dossier” had been exposed by Danchenko to the FBI. What can Durham do with this? We may be finding that out.