New York Times: “Federal authorities on Thursday arrested an analyst who in 2016 gathered leads about possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia for what turned out to be Democratic-funded opposition research, according to people familiar with the matter. The arrest of the analyst, Igor Danchenko, is part of the special counsel inquiry led by John H. Durham, who was appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation for any wrongdoing, the people said. Danchenko, was the primary researcher of the so-called Steele dossier, a compendium of rumors and unproven assertions suggesting that Trump and his 2016 campaign were compromised by and conspiring with Russian intelligence officials in Moscow’s covert operation to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. The people familiar with the matter spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictment of Danchenko had yet to be unsealed.”

“A spokesman for Durham did not respond to a request for comment. Some claims from the Steele dosser made their way into an FBI wiretap application targeting a former Trump campaign adviser in October 2016. Other portions of it – particularly a salacious claim about a purported sex tape – caused a political and media firestorm when Buzzfeed published the materials in January 2017, shortly before Trump was sworn in. But most of the important claims in the dossier – which was written by Danchenko’s employer, Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent – have not been proven, and some have been refuted. FBI agents interviewed Danchenko in 2017 when they were seeking to run down the claims in the dossier.”