Legislative Blog
J.B. Williams, J.D.
Danchenko and Dolan
A Blog about Durham Report
A Bit of Background
The following backgrounds help summarize the author's views on both the general topic: Other and more specifically Durham Report as it relates to that topic.
Brief Summary of Other
Topics here may be related to legal matters but not innately legal. For instance, discussing grocery plastic bags versus cotton cloth bags. The item itself is not legal but many city governments have placed it into legislation.
Summary of Durham Report
The Durham report is the attempt to review what occurred during Crossfire Hurricane. It shows major fails on the part of the FBI to remain non-political and significantly harms their reputation. It makes Watergate look like child's play, even if taken in a light most favorable to the FBI.
Blog Summary
Dolan was an Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association; Virginia Chairman of former President Clinton's 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. In 1997, Dolan was appointment by President Clinton to 2 four-year terms on the State Department's U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Dolan spent much of his career interacting with Eurasian clients with focus on Russia. Yet neither than nor the fact that he admitted to fabricating information provided to Steele altered the FBI's belief in the information.
Danchenko and Dolan
Published: 2023-08-24
Danchenko and Dolan
Meanwhile the FBI knew that without the Steele Reports they did not have probably cause for a FISA application on Page. They had reason to believe the Steele Reports were opposition research commissioned by a law firm and, ultimately, the candidate's campaign. But the FBI appears to not have considered that. And not a single substantive allegation in the Steele Reports has been corroborated - not at the time of the FISA submission nor by the time the Durham report was written. The FBI had 4 FISC orders targeting Page, they authorized intrusive electronic surveillance of Page and physical searches of certain items of his property from October 2016 through September 2017. The fact that this was done to a US citizen based upon highly questionable information that no one, at that time, sought to verify should send a chill up your spine.
Danchenko and Dolan. Dolan admitted to the Office to providing Danchenko information regarding Manafort's firing, that this appears in the Steele Report and that it was fabricated. Steele advised the FBI previously that Dolan could have been the 'political figure associated with Trump and his campaign.' Dolan previously served as Executive Director of the Democratic Governors Association; Virginia Chairman of former President Clinton's 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, and advisor to Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. In 1997, Dolan was appointment by President Clinton to 2 four-year terms on the State Department's U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Dolan spent much of his career interacting with Eurasian clients with focus on Russia. He was employed by Ketchum Inc, a global public relations firm, where he assisted with representation of the Russian Federation from 1999 through 2004/2005. He was to monitor US based think tanks and report back to Russia. He also assisted with media consulting and press operations for the 2006 F8 Summit held in St. Petersburg, Russia. He frequently interacted with Russian Government officials, including Dimitry Peskov and Alex Pavlov. Peskov is described as the right-hand man to Putin. Both Peskov and Pavlov are frequently mentioned in the Steele Reports. Dolan also maintains relationships with Sergei Kislyak and Mikhail Kalugin, both of whom feature prominently in the Steele Reports. And his ties to the DNC should not make you question DNC ties to Russia??
Dolan was introduced to Danchenko in 2016 by a Brookings Fellow. Danchenko was attempting to connect Olga Galkin, executive at Cypress-based computer firm (Servers.com), with a US based public relations firm. So the meeting of Dolan and Danchenko was made to broker a possible business relationship. Then Danchenko introduced Dolan to Galkina so that kglobal and Servers.com might have a business relationship. Danchenko later advised the FBI that Galkina was a source for information. Later in April 2016, Dolan and Danchenko considered potential business between kglobal and Orbis.
Dolan began traveling to Russia to prepare for the YPO Conference, and would sometimes stop in London on potential 'business.' Dolan had at least 3 meetings with Russian Embassy staff in Washington D.C. Dolan in email communications with others advised that Danchenko seems to young to be KGB but he believes he works for FSB. (FSB is the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) Dolan also traveled to Moscow and stayed at the Ritz Carlton hotel discussing the YPO Conference. The same Ritz Carlton where Trump allegedly had salacious sexual activities. Dolan admitted to the Office that he may have mentioned Trump stayed in the Ritz Carlton's Presidential Suite but not anything regarding salacious sexual activities. Although Dolan's recollection of what occurred during the trip (compared to others that were also there) and what he told Danchenko changed throughout the interviews with the Office. The general manager at the Ritz Carlton did not recognize Danchenko, and denied knowledge of the 'Ritz-Carlton allegations concerning Trump' until he heard it in the media. Records from the Ritz Carlton show Trump stayed in the hotel in 2013, but not in the Presidential Suite then or at any other time. Danchenko had initially advised he stayed at the Ritz-Carlton but later admitted to only having visited there. Steele claimed Danchenko's source for the information was Sergei Millian, but Danchenko's own information stated he only spoke with Millian once in late July 2016, which was after the report from June 2016. The only possible source for the information was Dolan.
Steele advised that Danchenko's source for the Clinton dossier was Pavlov. And that the Clinton dossier had not yet been made available to Trump or his inner circle. However, there seems to be no relationship between Pavlov and Danchenko, but there was one between Dolan and Pavlov. In fact, Dolan reached out to Pavlov several times before the June 2016 trip to Moscow. But Dolan stated he couldn't recall if they connected while he was in Moscow. Though it appears that Dolan was definitely the source of the information. Furthermore, Dolan was traveling to Cypress in July 2016 to meet with Galkina; and Steele was in Cypress at the same time. And Galkina even emailed that Dolan was reaching out to Peskov on her behalf regarding a position she was seeking in the Russian Presidential Administration. Dolan could not recall this but said it may have been possible. Dolan initially advised he would not discuss US politics with Galkina, but after being shown emails where he did just that, admitted to some discussions regarding the 2016 election and Galkina's support of Clinton. Galkina admitted that she and Dolan had discussed some of the information contained in the Steele Reports. Pressed on the Manafort issue, Dolan admitted to learning about it from public news sources and then fabricating the meeting with a 'GOP friend' in relaying information to Danchenko.
At one point, Danchenko requested Dolan secure some medication for him while in Russia. They later met at kglobal in Washington, ostensible so Danchenko could get the medication. The day after this meeting, 2 Steele reports were generated. Although Danchenko and Dolan were clearly interacting, and Danchenko was supposedly collected 80% of the raw intel for the Steele Reports, the FBI did not even interview Dolan. Although Agent Helson stated Danchenko was very gray whenever Dolan was brought up. Danchenko admitted that Dolan communicated with Peskov and Pavlov. And in January 2017 the FBI learned that Dolan had a relationship with Galkina, whom they knew to be a lifelong friend of Danchenko. Helson wondered if Dolan and Galkina were subsource's for Danchenko, and was the first person to mention Dolan to Danchenko. Helson was advised to not interview Dolan, although Helson thought they should interview Dolan at a minimum.
In late August 2017, Mueller investigation Supervisory Special Agent believed in investigating Charles Dolan and what connection, if any, he had to the Steele Reports. A case opening document was drafted on September 1, 2017; and later that day the agent was transferred to Team M (Manafort Team) from Team R. The Agent requested information to continue researching Dolan but it was denied. Attorney Rhee advised there was no need to further investigate the Steele Reports because they were not within the special mandate of the Mueller Special Counsel. They were explicitly told by Autin in September 2017 to cease any work on corroborating the Steele Reports. This seems extremely odd since the mandate was to investigate, among other things, 'Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election' - which would seem to include the Steele Reports. The Agent was also advised to delete the case opening file on Dolan. This Agent felt that there was political bias in not investigating Dolan since he was such a prominent Democrat, and that the information involving Dolan was going against what the Mueller team was believing.
Webpage created by and for J.B. Williams, J.D. - all rights reserved