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President Donald J. Trump responded to the Oct. 18 acquittal of Igor Danchenko on all counts on Wednesday, finding the silver lining in what many have decried as a miscarriage of justice.
Reacting to the verdict via Truth Social, Trump noted, “A very sad result for our Justice System, but so much has been exposed—far more than anyone thought possible.”
Danchenko, a Russian national, was a vital source of information for the defamatory Steele dossier that the FBI used to open an investigation into Trump following the 2016 election.
According to The Epoch Times, Danchenko was acquitted Tuesday on four counts of lying to the FBI by jurors in an Alexandria, Virginia, court. The case was prosecuted by Special Counsel John Durham.
However, in an op-ed published Wednesday, Fox News’ Gregg Jarrett wrote that the trial was “never really about Danchenko at all,” noting that, as time wore on, it became “obvious that he was a conduit for a worthier ambition — a damning indictment of the FBI’s gross misconduct.”
“In reality, the crooked FBI was in the dock throughout the weeklong trial, exposed for its years of shameful lies, shocking corruption, and devious cover-ups,” the political analyst wrote. “It was former Director James Comey and his sleazy confederates who colluded with the Hillary Clinton campaign to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. They framed him for alleged crimes he never committed.”
Recounting the revelations that arose from the Danchenko trial – including that the FBI offered Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate his own already-debunked claims and then portrayed those falsehoods as credible – Jarrett commended Durham on exposing the depths of corruption at the bureau.
“Special counsel Durham should be commended for his dogged pursuit of the truth,” Jarrett wrote. “He may have lost the trial, but he succeeded in unraveling a multitude of pernicious lies. He exposed how a malignant force of unelected officials committed uncommon corruption through insipid deceptions and malevolent acts.”
President Trump, in apparent agreement with Jarrett’s analysis, shared the op-ed Wednesday alongside his response to Danchenko’s acquittal.
However, appearing on “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was less positive in her reaction to the verdict, stating she found it “shocking.”
“For the American people to have gone through what we all went through with the Russia collusion hoax … and you still have no one held accountable for what happened to our country,” she said. “I mean this tore our country apart. We’re talking about tens of millions of taxpayer dollars that went into something that these people all knew was a lie. Where is the accountability on any of this? It is shocking that this can happen in America and yet no one is held accountable.”