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Durham’s Steele Dossier Case Hits Hurdles From His Own FBI Witnesses

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Durham’s Steele Dossier Case Hits Hurdles From His Own FBI Witnesses

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A central supply for a salacious 2016 file on then-presidential candidate

Donald Trump

turned a beneficial informant for the FBI and brokers who labored with him thought he was telling the reality, FBI staff testified this week.

Their testimony, as witnesses in a case introduced by the prosecution, introduced severe challenges to Particular Counsel

John Durham’s

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case towards marketing consultant Igor Danchenko on prices of mendacity to the FBI, the second case Mr. Durham has introduced in his yearslong inquiry into actions FBI brokers took as they probed Russian interference within the 2016 election. Mr. Durham engaged in heated confrontations with two of his main witnesses, together with on the finish of Thursday with FBI agent Kevin Helson.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Mr. Danchenko in regards to the file, which was stuffed with opposition analysis materials about Mr. Trump and his alleged ties to Russia in early 2017. The fabric within the file has since been largely discredited. However the FBI signed up Mr. Danchenko as a confidential human supply on a variety of Russia issues.

Mr. Danchenko had offered data to former British intelligence officer

Christopher Steele

who used it in a collection of memos paid for by Mr. Trump’s opponents that turned public in 2017. Mr. Danchenko was upset when these memos have been launched as a result of he thought Mr. Steele had embellished and exaggerated the rumors Mr. Danchenko had collected, Mr. Helson testified.

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Mr. Danchenko went on to supply data that helped two dozen FBI investigations since 2017 and helped the bureau rethink methods to counter Russian affect operations contained in the U.S., Mr. Helson mentioned. His function ended after the Trump administration made public paperwork that recognized him in 2020, and Mr. Durham filed prices.

“Shedding him as a confidential human supply harmed nationwide safety?” certainly one of Mr. Danchenko’s legal professionals, Stuart Sears, requested on the finish of his cross-examination on Thursday, to which Mr. Helson replied: “Sure.”

Particular Counsel John Durham’s first case wound up in an acquittal earlier this 12 months.



Photograph:

JULIA NIKHINSON/REUTERS

The developments come as Mr. Durham has taken steps to wind down his inquiry and after his first case resulted in an acquittal earlier this 12 months.

The trial in federal courtroom right here, which is predicted to finish early subsequent week, has revisited the tumultuous 2016 marketing campaign and laid naked uncooked and lingering disagreements in regards to the FBI’s frantic efforts on the time to find out the validity of allegations that the Trump marketing campaign was coordinating with the Russian authorities to affect the presidential election.

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U.S. authorities investigations resulted in prices towards dozens of Russian entities and people for allegedly participating in a two-pronged assault of disinformation and laptop hacking. They discovered a number of contacts between Russia-linked entities and Trump marketing campaign advisers at across the similar time, however didn’t set up any conspiracy between the 2.

After Mr. Helson testified to Mr. Danchenko’s worth to the FBI, Mr. Durham argued with Mr. Helson about whether or not he had appropriately managed Mr. Danchenko or was too trusting of him, and whether or not, as one other FBI worker had at one level recommended, Mr. Danchenko might have been a Russian intelligence officer. Mr. Durham identified, his voice rising, that an inside evaluation had beneficial that Mr. Helson ask Mr. Danchenko to take a polygraph take a look at to ask if he had ever been enlisted by a overseas energy.

“Did you do it?” Mr. Durham requested. “No,” Mr. Helson replied. He mentioned repeatedly that he believed Mr. Danchenko had risked his security to assist the FBI and had earned his belief. Mr. Danchenko answered all questions the FBI requested, recognized new topics for FBI counterintelligence surveillance, allowed the FBI to eavesdrop on delicate cellphone calls, and offered the FBI with helpful analysis, Mr. Helson mentioned.

“At no level in three years did you stroll away pondering he lied to you?” Mr. Sears requested, to which Mr. Helson mentioned: “That’s appropriate.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Durham argued with one other of his witnesses, FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten, suggesting the FBI had been gullible in utilizing uncorroborated data from the file in an utility to surveil a former Trump marketing campaign adviser. The FBI instituted adjustments in 2019 after the Justice Division’s inspector normal discovered main issues with these purposes. Mr. Auten repeatedly mentioned that his job as an analyst meant that he didn’t make investigative selections himself, which as a substitute fell to the FBI brokers concerned within the inquiry.

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Mr. Danchenko is charged with mendacity when he advised the FBI he acquired some data, later included within the file, from an nameless name that he believed might have been from the pinnacle of a Russian-American group. Mr. Danchenko advised brokers he tried to fulfill the individual he thought was the caller in New York however the individual by no means confirmed up. Mr. Durham mentioned no such cellphone name seems on Mr. Danchenko’s name log, accusing Mr. Danchenko of mendacity to the FBI.

“You took data from that and put it in an affidavit and didn’t know the place it got here from?” Mr. Durham requested Mr. Auten, referring to the data that allegedly got here from that cellphone name and ended up within the surveillance purposes. Mr. Auten, an FBI analyst who had first recognized Mr. Danchenko and took part within the first interviews with him, mentioned he wasn’t chargeable for placing the purposes collectively.

Mr. Auten’s cross examination on Wednesday appeared to bolster Mr. Danchenko’s protection. One other lawyer for Mr. Danchenko, Danny Onorato, for instance, launched Mr. Danchenko’s last-minute prepare ticket buy to New York and a

Fb

message he despatched whereas he was there to help Mr. Danchenko’s story. “All the things he advised you has been corroborated?” Mr. Oronato requested, to which Mr. Auten replied: “What you’re displaying me, I’m seeing corroboration.”

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Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

This article is also a weekly newsletter. Sign up for Race/Related here.

In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles, many people are referencing the work of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Butler, who grew up in Pasadena, was the daughter of a housekeeper and a father who was a shoeshiner. She went on to become the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur “genius” award. Her book “Parable of the Sower,” published in 1993, paints a picture of a California ravished by the effects of climate change, income inequality, political divisiveness and centers on a young woman struggling to find faith and the community to build a new future.

The phrase “Octavia tried to tell us,” which began to gain momentum in 2020 during the pandemic, has once again resurfaced, in part because Butler studied science and history so deeply. The accuracy with which she read the shifts in America can, at times, seem eerily prophetic. One entry in “Parable of the Sower,” which is structured as a journal, dated on “February 1, 2025” begins, “We had a fire today.” It goes on to describe how the fear of fires plague Robledo, a fictional town that feels much like Altadena, a haven for the Black middle class for more than 50 years, where Butler lived in the late ’90s.

In 2000, Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” She wrote: “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.”

In one of the last interviews before she died in 2006, Butler spoke to Democracy Now!, an independent news organization, about how she’d been worried about how climate could devastate California . “I wrote the two ‘Parable’ books back in the ’90s,” she said, referring to “Parable of the Sower” and her 1998 follow-up, “Parable of the Talents.” These books, she explained, were about what happens when “we don’t trouble to correct some of the problems we are brewing for ourselves right now. Global warming is one of those problems. And I was aware of it back in the ’80s.” She continued: “A lot of people were seeing it as politics, as something very iffy, as something they could ignore because nothing was going to come of it tomorrow.

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Lynell George, a writer who lives in Los Angeles and the author of a book on Butler and her creative journey, has spent many years studying Butler’s archives at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. In 2022, we asked George to write about how Butler predicted the world we live in. As so many people are turning to her work during this time of tremendous loss, we wanted to share that story with our readers again.

In her piece, “The Visions of Octavia Butler,” George wrote: “In ‘Parable of the Sower,’ Earth is tipping toward climate disaster: A catastrophic drought has led to social upheaval and violent class wars. Butler, a fervent environmentalist, researched the novel by clipping articles, taking notes and monitoring rain and growth in her Southern California neighborhood. She couldn’t help but wonder, she later wrote, what ‘environmental and economic stupidities’ might lead to. She often called herself a pessimist, but threaded into the bleak landscape of her ‘Parable’ novels are strands of glimmering hope — ribbons of blue at the edges of the fictional fiery skies.”

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Parts of Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved inside the US Capitol because of freezing weather that is forecast for Washington on Monday.

It will be the first time since 1985 — when a severe cold snap hit Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration — that a swearing-in ceremony has been moved indoors.

The president-elect announced the revised plans in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying he had ordered the inauguration address, as well as prayers and speeches, to be delivered inside the Capitol Rotunda as Reagan had done four decades ago.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”

The National Weather Service said an “enhanced winter storm threat” was in place for Sunday afternoon and evening, and predicted about 2-4 inches of snow would fall, with a “reasonable worst case” scenario of 4-8 inches.

“Bitterly cold wind chills” were expected Monday to Wednesday, the NWS said on Friday, as it forecast temperatures to be “well below freezing” during this period.

The agency is forecasting a high of about -5C at 11am local time on Monday, when the swearing-in ceremony is due to begin, with a wind-chill of -13C that it warned could result in hypothermia or frostbite without appropriate attire.

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Trump said the Capital One Arena — with a capacity of 20,000 — will be opened on Monday for a live viewing of the ceremony, and that he would visit the venue, located about 2km from the Capitol, following his swearing-in.

Other events, including a victory rally at the arena are scheduled for Sunday and inaugural balls set for Monday night, will continue as scheduled, the president-elect said.

Trump encouraged supporters who choose to come to “dress warmly!”

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

Security contractor Zachary Young alleges CNN defamed him in a November 2021 report, shown above, about Afghans’ fears of exorbitant charges from people offering to get them out of the country after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. CNN says it will defend the report in a trial set to start in a Florida court Monday.

CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR


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CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR

A Florida jury has found that CNN defamed a security consultant in presenting a story that suggested he was charging “exorbitant prices” to evacuate people desperate to get out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021.

Jurors found the network should pay $5 million to U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young for lost finances and suffering, and said he was eligible for more in punitive damages. The proceedings turned immediately to expert testimony as both sides presented cases over what punitive damages would be appropriate.

Young sat impassively as the jury’s verdict was read aloud in court.

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The November 2021 story focused on concerns from Afghans that they faced extraordinary costs in a “black market” to secure safe passage for relatives and friends, especially those who had worked with U.S. agencies and organizations and therefore were fearful of the takeover by the Taliban.

Young was the only security contractor named in the piece, however, and a caption warned he offered “no guarantee of safety or success.”

He was not directly accused of operating in a black market in the television or written versions of the story, but the words did appear in the caption in the TV version of the story.

On the witness stand during the trial, CNN editors defended use of the term “black market,” saying it meant operating in unregulated circumstances, such as the chaos of Kabul at that time; Young’s lawyers noted that dictionaries consistently ascribe illegality to the term.

The jury found CNN liable for defamation per se, meaning it had harmed Young by the very words it chose, and for defamation by implication, that is, it had harmed his reputation by the implications that a reasonable reader or viewer might take from the story.

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Young’s lead attorney, Devin Freedman, had argued that CNN willfully damaged Young, costing him millions of dollars and causing irreparable personal harm, and that the network should be punished for it. Toward the very end of his closing arguments, Freedman told the jury they had the rare opportunity to hold the press accountable.

“Media executives around the country are sitting by the phones to see what you do,” Freedman told jurors. “CNN’s executives are waiting in their boardrooms in Georgia to see what you decide. Make the phones ring in Georgia. Send a message.”

After the initial verdict, Judge William S. Henry instructed jurors that they could only find punitive damages against CNN for its actions in the case at hand, not over any other story or issue.

Even so, over the course of the lawsuit, lawyers for Zachary Young acquired internal correspondence showing several editors within CNN held reservations about the solidity of the reporting behind the story.

For example, Fuzz Hogan, a senior director of standards for CNN, acknowledged in testimony under oath that he had approved a “three-quarters true” story. Another editor, Tom Lumley, had said in an internal message that the piece was “80 percent emotion.” On the stand, Lumley said that it still wasn’t his favorite story, but on the grounds of the craft of story-telling involved.

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During the trial, CNN’s lawyers had contended the story’s reporting holds up as fair and true under scrutiny. CNN correspondent Alexander Marquardt had presented viewers with a LinkedIn message from Young saying it would cost $75,000 to evacuate a vehicle with five or six passengers from Kabul to Pakistan. Young said he worked with corporate sponsors, including Bloomberg and Audible, rather than individuals.

On the stand, Young acknowledged that he took a 65% profit margin from the fees he charged, and took inquiries from individuals. He also curtly and coarsely brushed off people inquiring about help who could not afford his fees.

Other groups involving U.S. veterans and non-governmental organizations sought to get Afghans out without such profits, as a former major general testifying on Young’s behalf acknowledged. The retired major general, James V. Young Jr. (not related to Zach Young), said he charged donors for the cost.

CNN’s legal team, led by David Axelrod (the lawyer is not related to the Obama White House official and CNN analyst of the same name) had told jurors they should rely on their own “common sense.”

Axelrod had been able to press Young to concede that some of his claims to potential clients were not borne out by facts; Young had not in fact evacuated people from Afghanistan by air. Nor was he in constant contact with journalists, as claimed.

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In his closing argument, Freedman presented Young as a swashbuckling former CIA operative to explain his curtness in messages to desperate people trying to help people.

On the witness stand, however, Young emerged as emotionally vulnerable himself, weeping during testimony. He recounted that, after the story ran, he became despondent, depressed, alienated from intimacy with his wife, cut off from friends and family members. HIs attorney cited “deep and lasting wounds” from the piece.

The piece was presented initially on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, and a fuller written version subsequently posted on CNN’s website. A few months later, shortly after Young’s legal team threatened legal actions, a substitute anchor apologized to Young on the air for use of the term “black market” in the story, and said it did not apply to him.

Freedman, Young’s attorney, called the apology insufficient.

“This is what makes this case historic: punitive damages,” Freedman told jurors. “A media company has to face an American jury with the power to punish. That is not a frequent event. Do you believe that CNN should be punished? Do you believe they should send a message to other media companies to avoid this misconduct?”

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This story will be updated after the jury decides on what, if any, punitive damages to award Young.

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