WEBVTT NOTE recognizability 0.859 NOTE language en-us 00:00:02.270 --> 00:00:06.030 The second trial related to John Durham's investigation into the 00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:10.166 origins of the Trump Russia probe is now underway with Russian 00:00:10.166 --> 00:00:13.926 national and Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko charged with lying 00:00:13.926 --> 00:00:18.062 to the FBI. The special counsel himself leading the questioning of 00:00:18.062 --> 00:00:22.198 the prosecution's first witness, an FBI analyst who admitted that the 00:00:22.198 --> 00:00:26.334 agency offered steel up to $1,000,000 to prove his explosive claims. 00:00:26.334 --> 00:00:30.470 We're back with Kim Strassel, who's been following the Durham probe 00:00:30.470 --> 00:00:35.014 from. The start. Hey Kim, so $1,000,000 to somebody who is you're 00:00:35.014 --> 00:00:39.616 trying to say you say, hey, you've got this evidence, we'll give you 00:00:39.616 --> 00:00:44.218 1,000,000 bucks if you can prove it. Now, usually don't they go to 00:00:44.218 --> 00:00:48.112 somebody else to prove something like that, not the guy who's 00:00:48.112 --> 00:00:49.174 actually claiming it. 00:00:50.610 --> 00:00:54.066 Yeah. If you FBI is gonna give a reward for legitimizing information, 00:00:54.066 --> 00:00:57.234 it's usually to a secondary source who can corroborate the first 00:00:57.234 --> 00:01:00.690 notion that they went to Christopher Steele just a couple of weeks 00:01:00.690 --> 00:01:04.722 after they got a number of the pieces of his dossier. Say, hey, we 00:01:04.722 --> 00:01:09.042 need you to prove this and we'll even give you up to $1,000,000 to do 00:01:09.042 --> 00:01:12.786 it. And he still couldn't do it, Paul. And that's one of the 00:01:12.786 --> 00:01:16.530 remarkable story here is that even in October of 2016, they knew that 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:19.986 they had nothing. And yet they began, they proceeded with this probe, 00:01:19.986 --> 00:01:24.626 including. Applications for secret surveillance of of that Trump aide 00:01:24.626 --> 00:01:29.620 Carter Page and the FBI used still used that steel dossier 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:35.522 information to file for its the Carter page warrants I guess was it 00:01:35.522 --> 00:01:42.786 four of them and you know I mean and they Even so and in January of 00:01:42.786 --> 00:01:47.780 2017 they had interviewed Danchenko and that also suggested to the 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:50.504 FBI that what Steele was peddling. 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:55.160 Was false. And yet the FBI stayed silent for many 00:01:55.160 --> 00:01:56.976 more months. Explain that. 00:01:58.100 --> 00:02:01.350 Yeah. So remember, Danchenko provided the majority of the information 00:02:01.350 --> 00:02:04.925 that went into the Steele dossier that's been established. And when 00:02:04.925 --> 00:02:09.475 the FBI went to speak to him in January, he essentially said, uh, you 00:02:09.475 --> 00:02:13.375 know, steal overstated and misstated. What I said, most of this is 00:02:13.375 --> 00:02:17.275 hearsay. It's gossip, the kind of stuff you get over beers with 00:02:17.275 --> 00:02:21.825 friends. I don't have any proof for any of it. And you know, Paul, 00:02:21.825 --> 00:02:26.050 it's remarkable. Think about the timing of that. So even as he is 00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:28.325 telling them this, you know, Jim comedy. 00:02:28.440 --> 00:02:33.690 The former FBI director is is setting the stage for the dossier to be 00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:38.940 made public by the news media. They sit quiet about that as the FBI 00:02:38.940 --> 00:02:41.940 goes about prosecuting former national security adviser Michael 00:02:41.940 --> 00:02:46.815 Flynn. They sit quiet as comedy again, kind of arranges for us to 00:02:46.815 --> 00:02:50.940 have a another special counsel, Bob Mueller, to spend 22 months 00:02:50.940 --> 00:02:55.815 looking at claims that the FBI already knew that they had no evidence 00:02:55.815 --> 00:02:58.440 for. Yeah, that's a real black mark. 00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:03.135 Against the FBI. What is Durham? I know, we know he's trying to get a 00:03:03.135 --> 00:03:06.771 conviction here of danchenko for lying to the FBI, but that's a 00:03:06.771 --> 00:03:10.407 relatively minor charge as these things go. So what is his larger 00:03:10.407 --> 00:03:14.346 purpose here and what is he trying to get out to the public? 00:03:15.730 --> 00:03:19.942 Yeah, I think the goal with this case and also Michael Sussman, who 00:03:19.942 --> 00:03:23.506 he unsuccessfully tried before, in both of those cases, he brought 00:03:23.506 --> 00:03:27.070 the the tried and true lying to the federal government charges 00:03:27.070 --> 00:03:30.958 because those are the kind of cases that prosecutors have the best 00:03:30.958 --> 00:03:35.818 shot of winning. We'll see how he comes here. But if you look at his 00:03:35.818 --> 00:03:39.382 filings, Paul, and the evidence and the witness testimony we get, 00:03:39.382 --> 00:03:43.918 what is very clear is that he is also telling the story of FBI 00:03:43.918 --> 00:03:45.214 incompetence and political chicanery. 00:03:45.390 --> 00:03:49.492 It has been very clear from all of this information that the FBI from 00:03:49.492 --> 00:03:53.594 the beginning knew it didn't have the goods to make any sort of case. 00:03:53.594 --> 00:03:57.403 And yet, for whatever reason, it closed its eyes to holes in the 00:03:57.403 --> 00:04:01.212 witnesses that had sources that had come to them and and seemed to 00:04:01.212 --> 00:04:05.021 take every step possible to keep this going. And, you know, he's laid 00:04:05.021 --> 00:04:08.830 it out pretty strongly. He, he has to be careful because in theory 00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:12.639 the, the the victim here is the FBI. They're the ones that were 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:15.276 supposedly lied to by these guys, but they have. 00:04:15.410 --> 00:04:19.410 A lot to account for themselves after this. Where does 00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:21.010 the Durham investigation go? 00:04:22.370 --> 00:04:25.428 You know, there's been indications from the special counsel that this 00:04:25.428 --> 00:04:28.486 may be his last prosecution, that he's gonna wind things up. 00:04:28.486 --> 00:04:32.100 Apparently his grand jury has now expired. So the next thing would be 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:36.548 a report. And then he would file that he may be far more free at that 00:04:36.548 --> 00:04:40.718 point to lay out his true feelings on the FBI and its role in this. 00:04:40.718 --> 00:04:44.054 That'll go to Merrick Garland, the attorney general. And then the big 00:04:44.054 --> 00:04:47.668 question, Paul, is whether or not there are any attempts by the Biden 00:04:47.668 --> 00:04:50.726 administration to squelch that report or not make it public. Garland 00:04:50.726 --> 00:04:52.950 has suggested he'd like to make it public. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:54.720 That we'll still have to see.