A Russian researcher was acquitted by a federal jury on the charges of lying to the FBI about his sources of information in a document dubbed the “Steele dossier”.
Igar Danchenko’s acquittal will likely cause more problems for Special Counsel John Durham who was appointed by Trump-era Attorney General William Barr to investigate the FBI’s probe into whether there were members of Donald Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia.
The Steele dossier made some explosive accusations, including that Russia had ‘kompromat’ on the former president. However, it was revealed that the information released by the former MI6 agent Christopher Steele was mostly speculation. As a result, the FBI used the information within the dossier to secure applications for warrantless surveillance of Donald Trump’s former campaign advisor, Carter Page.
Who is Carter Page?
Carter William Page is an American petroleum consultant who worked as the foreign-policy advisor for Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign run.
He is also the founder of Global Energy Capital, an investment fund specialising in Russian and Central Asian oil and gas businesses.
Page was born on June 3, 1971 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Poughkeepsie in New York and graduated high school in 1989. He attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science. He served in the Navy until 1998.
Later on in life, Page was announced as the foreign policy advisor to Trump on March 21, 2016. A few months later, he began to be investigated by US intelligence officials for ties to Russia as he had allegedly been in contact with Russian officials who were the subject of US sanctions.
His name appeared in the ‘Steele dossier’ which alleged close interactions between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. However, Page later testified in a House Committee hearing that he had kept senior officials within the Trump campaign informed of his meetings.
