Judge throws out one of five counts against Danchenko

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga acquitted Russian national Igor Danchenko on one of five counts against him, after Special Counsel John Durham charged him with making false statements to the FBI.

Trenga threw out one of the five counts of making a false statement to the FBI after a standard Rule 29 proceeding where the defense brings a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the prosecution has not brought sufficient evidence to prove it

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Durham’s team completed laying out evidence on Friday. 

Trenga on Friday agreed with Danchenko’s defense attorneys to throw out Count one. Counts two through five will go to the jury for consideration.

Count One alleges that Danchenko lied to FBI Special Agent Kevin Helson when he said he had not “talked” to longtime Democratic operative and PR executive Charles Dolan about information that went into the Steele Dossier.

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Trenga ruled that the criminal statutes on false statement charges, “are not to be loosely construed,” and that the “burden is on the questioner to pin the witness down.”

In that interview, the transcript shows that Helson asked Danchenko: “You never talked to Dolan about the dossier?”

Danchenko replies, “No… nothing specific.”

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The evidence presented at trial this week shows that information Dolan gave to Danchenko in an email ultimately made it into the dossier.

Danchenko, in the dossier, attributes that information to “an American political figure associated with Donald Trump.”

But Dolan testified this week that he lied to Danchenko in 2016 when he said he had inside information from a GOP source about the resignation of Paul Manafort from the Trump campaign — information that he actually learned through open source reporting.

Trenga said Friday that Durham’s team “has not presented any evidence that Danchenko understood ‘talk’ meant more” than the spoken word.

“The language of the question controls,” said Judge Trenga. “He [Helson] didn’t ask for written communications or e-mail.”

The defense declined to put on a case.

Closing arguments in the trial of Danchenko are set to begin Monday.

Durham has been investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He charged Danchenko with five counts of making false statements to the FBI. Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.