Alleged Source for Steele Dossier Raised Issues With Statements by Igor Dancheko: FBI Official

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington on July 21, 2022. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—An alleged source for the anti-Donald Trump dossier told FBI agents in 2017 that statements made by another alleged dossier source weren’t accurate, an FBI official testified in federal court on Oct. 12.

Olga Galkina, a Russian citizen and communications adviser, contradicted statements from Igor Danchenko, another Russian national, during an August 2017 interview with FBI agents in Cyprus, FBI official Brian Auten, one of the agents, said.

Danchenko, who has bragged that he was responsible for the bulk of the information in the dossier, told the FBI during interviews in early 2017 that one of his sources was Galkina, prompting agents to travel to meet with her in August 2017.

“We were looking, again, for the material that was attributed to Ms. Galkina coming out of the January 2017 interviews. We wanted to get a sense from Ms. Galkina’s own words or recollections, etc., exactly how she was oriented with respect to her accesses and whether or not the information was accurate,” Auten testified in court in Virginia.

The information Galkina provided was inconsistent in some respects with the information Danchenko provided, according to the official, a supervisory special agent who was involved with both Crossfire Hurricane and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

Danchenko’s lawyers objected, leading to a sidebar. Out of earshot of jurors, special counsel John Durham said: “[Auten] and others go, and they interview Ms. Galkina in Cyprus. Ms. Galkina gives some information that’s inconsistent with what Mr. Danchenko had told the bureau. As a result of some of those inconsistencies [government officials] had questions that they then wanted to have [Danchenko’s handling agent] pose to Mr. Danchenko. So that’s where this is going.”

The judge ruled that discussion about the inconstancies should be avoided.

A previous report from the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (DOJ OIG), citing FBI documents, said that one of Steele’s sub-sources told the FBI in August 2017 that whatever information in the dossier that was attributed to him/her had been “exaggerated” and that he/she did not recognize anything as “originating specifically from him/her,” but the person was not identified.

Galkina said in a declaration to a U.S. court in 2021 that she has known Danchenko and been friends with him since they were teenagers in Perm, Russia, but that she “did not provide Mr. Danchenko (or anyone else) with any information mentioned in the Dossier and that was connected to [certain individuals].”

Galkina also said that Danchenko introduced her to Charles Dolan, a longtime Democrat-linked marketer, during an in-person meeting in the United States in 2016.

She did not mention speaking to the FBI, which also went overseas to talk to Steele himself.

Agents did not alert the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to any corrections for facts in sworn affidavits for spy warrants on Carter Page, a Trump campaign associate, even though it relied on parts of the dossier, the DOJ OIG found. Court rules require such reporting.

The FBI by that time had hired Danchenko as a confidential human source. That status remained in place until late 2020.

Igor Danchenko outside the U.S. courthouse in Alexandria, Va., on Oct. 11, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

‘Vague Information’

Danchenko is on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI by not disclosing Dolan was one of his sub-sources. Dolan is slated to testify in the trial, but Galkina is not.

Agents asked about Galkina’s relationship with Dolan during the Cyprus interview, according to Auten.

“And were you able to get any information?” special counsel John Durham, prosecuting the case, asked.

“Very vague information to my recollection,” Auten said.

Auten said Galkina was hesitant to discuss the matter.

“She didn’t want to talk?” Durham said.

“That is what I recall,” Auten said.

“Okay. So whatever the relationship was between Mr. Dolan and Ms. Galkina led to further investigative efforts?” Durham asked.

“Correct,” Auten said.