Top Durham prosecutor withdraws from case against Steele dossier source

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Top Durham prosecutor withdraws from case against Steele dossier source

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Top Durham prosecutor withdraws from case against Steele dossier source
by Jerry Dunleavy, August 22, 2022

John Durham’s team has been shaken up again ahead of what some are describing as a make-or-break trial.

Durham asked the court on Sunday to “please withdraw the appearance” of Andrew DeFilippis, an assistant special counsel, from the criminal case against Steele dossier source and Russian national Igor Danchenko. The move comes less than a month after it appeared Durham had personally taken the reins ahead of the upcoming trial against Danchenko.

Before his removal, DeFilippis had played a prominent role in the Danchenko case since the November indictment, including during appearances in court, virtual hearings, and legal filings.

Danchenko was charged last year with five counts of making false statements to the FBI. Durham says the comments were about the information Danchenko provided for the dossier. The Department of Justice's watchdog concluded that Danchenko eventually undermined Steele’s unfounded claims of a “well-developed conspiracy” between former President Donald Trump and Russia.

WHO IS DOSSIER SOURCE IGOR DANCHENKO?
Durham did the talking for the prosecution during a brief Danchenko hearing in early August, and he filed a short notice with the federal court, saying: “I appear in this case as counsel for the United States of America.” Durham also told the judge the Danchenko trial was expected to last five or six days. A court filing by Durham last month requested that the court issue 30 subpoenas for possible witness testimony for the trial starting Oct. 11.

While the special counsel was often present in the courtroom during the May trial against Democratic cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann, Durham never spoke, so his actions this month were a marked departure.

The status conference minutes filed with the court said the “counsel for government” included Michael Keilty, who also assisted with the Sussmann case, and Adam Small, who appeared to be a new addition to the team this month. DeFilippis was not with the special counsel team at the Alexandria courthouse where the trial will be held.

STEELE DOSSIER SOURCE SUGGESTS ANTI-RUSSIAN BIAS COULD TAINT JURY POOL

The October trial against Danchenko comes after Sussmann was found not guilty in May, a blow to Durham's investigation.

Sussmann had been charged with allegedly concealing two clients — technology executive Rodney Joffe and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — from FBI General Counsel James Baker when Sussmann pushed debunked allegations of a secret line of communication between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank.

DeFilippis was the most prominent prosecutor in the Sussmann case, including doing the questioning of the government’s main witness — Baker — as well as grilling Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who in 2016 had hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which in turn hired Steele to pen and push his anti-Trump dossier.

DeFilippis also delivered the ultimately unsuccessful closing arguments for Durham’s team at the end of the trial in May.Russia-born lawyer Danchenko has lived and worked in the Washington, D.C., area for many years, allegedly relying on a network of Russian contacts. But he has been accused of undermining key collusion claims when interviewed by the FBI.

Danchenko’s attorney raised the issue of potential anti-Russian bias tainting the northern Virginia jury pool during the early August hearing. The lawyer backed up the claim by noting there are a number of Ukrainian flags around Alexandria following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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