His daughter and stepdaughter, not yet teenagers at the time, headed to sleep.
His wife, Kristina, reclined on the bed and opened Twitter.
She saw the news theyd dreaded the entirety of their relationship.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham holds a copy of the Steele Dossier during a 2019 committee hearing on Capitol Hill.Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Oh, my God, she said.
The 302 transcript is out.
An FD-302 form is how FBI agents summarize an interview.
In this case, it was Danchenkos initial interview with the FBI.
Danchenko was the dossiers primary subsource.
But until this evening in 2020, his affiliations had remained sealed from the public eye.
Hed never been identified as the man whod provided the majority of the intelligence in the dossier.
Danchenko had thought his work would remain in the shadows like it had throughout his career.
He assumed it would get passed on to the intelligence community, and perhaps they would investigate it further.
But, he says, he was as stunned as anyone when he saw it published on BuzzFeed News.
This whole world is built on trust trust that this is strictly confidential.
The Steele Dossier has left a permanent imprint on American politics and on the intelligence community.
All these years, I wasnt hiding, Danchenko says.
My social media was all open for people to see.
So many open records.
It was impossible to shield myself from this.
I couldnt undo my whole life.
These details were so particular, so specific ofcourseit was Igor.
Danchenko says he texted his FBI handler: I think this is it.
The FBI said they shouldnt park in their normal spot; they moved their SUV a few blocks away.
Danchenko and his wife covered the condos windows with blankets.
They called his ex-wife so their kids could stay with her.
How often do you get betrayed by the attorney general of the United States, personally?
How often does that happen?
He pulled out his pack of unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes and chain-smoked while deleting his digital past.
He deleted friends from LinkedIn.
He severed ties with a internet of hundreds.
Two days later, his name was posted on a blog titledI Found the Primary Subsource.
Online sleuths had connected that unredacted report to the Steele Dossier.
Immediately, his Foursquare account was hacked.
RT, formerly known as Russia Today, had blasted out Danchenkos photograph.
you could see life crashing down and everything collapsing, he recalls.
Ive been served on a silver platter to Russian intelligence.
How often do you get betrayed by the attorney general of the United States, personally?
How often does that happen?
Soon, it would get worse.
Hed be called a Russian spy.
Trump name-checked Danchenko at rallies as an example of political corruption.
His drinking, long an issue, devolved.
The FBI severed ties.
Eventually, hed be indicted for lying to the FBI.
His trial would end in acquittal a semi-redemption that would cost more than $350,000 in legal bills.
He became virtually unemployable in his world of business intelligence and geopolitical analysis.
They went for a walk on the beach.
Winds gusted above 20 mph.
Just before they got in the water, they paused, seeing an odd shape on the beach.
They walked closer, and it came into focus: a dead shark.
I pass the American flag out front and dozens of seashells on display and knock on the door.
I extend my hand.
Its a bad omen to shake hands before entering the door, he warns me.
From the outside, all seems well in the 46-year-olds life.
After his acquittal, Danchenko figured his familys yearslong drama was over.
They went on a family vacation to Puerto Rico.
He finally became a U.S. citizen.
He started a book; his ghostwriter told him he might get a seven-figure advance.
His wife focused on her high-paying job as an attorney.
Who is this man to worry?
He could have been in jail.
He could have been targeted by Russian operatives.
But all is not well.
It ruined him, says his 13-year-old daughter, Isabella.
Its what hes known for.
Thats always going to be there for him.
And for me, too.
He and his wife are in marriage counseling.
I feel like Im being swallowed by all of it.
Consumed by stress, he missed vast parts of his daughters childhood.
Hes lost 40 pounds off a frame with little to spare; his face looks gaunt.
He and his wife lost friends.
(Ill never be able to go back there, even if theres a liberal president, Danchenko says.
Ive committed treason.)
He has often contemplated suicide.
(He has yet to pay, Danchenko says.
A representative for Trump didnt respond to a request for comment.)
He still owes his attorney $60,000.
His confidential sources in Russia and elsewhere dried up.
Hes applied for 100 jobs since his acquittal.
The job market for a Russian and Eurasian energy analyst is small: research, academia, counterintelligence.
He would have been a really good political-risk analyst.
Kristina and Danchenko peer at each other from opposite ends of the couch.
Money isnt their biggest problem, they agree, thanks to Kristinas job.
Its that hes lost himself.
Russia, this work, its part of his identity, his wife says.
Im chained to this dossier, to Trump, he says.
And I cant unlink myself from it.
I cant be your therapist anymore, his wife, Kristina, told him after the acquittal.
I feel like Im being swallowed by all of it.
His book, Danchenko hoped, could be redemption.
But it never sold.
Its very much a Washington tale.
Its a nasty, rough town, worse than its been in a long time.
This is a story of one young guy who got caught up in it.
THE RIGHT HAS CALLED Danchenko a Russian spy.
The left blames him for the still-unverified (and therefore easily dismissed) information in the Steele Dossier.
His own mother, who lives in Russia, believes hes a double agent.
The accompanying portrait showed Reagan sleek, smiling, Hollywood.
Danchenko was in love.
He attended an elite English-language school where students aspired to work in Soviet foreign affairs.
He amassed an impressive collection of Western music: Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots, Ministry and Pantera.
He joined a yearlong exchange program and graduated from high school near New Orleans.
(That paper, along with a glowing endorsement from Hill, was why Steele first hired Danchenko.)
His work in D.C. raised the eyebrows of the American intelligence establishment.
(He denies this.)
The FBI closed the investigation a couple of years later, thinking hed left the country.
Someone like myself operating in Washington?
I would have been looking at somebody like myself too, Danchenko explains.
I find it normal.
But it doesnt mean I was a Russian spy.
After the investigation closed, he began working for Steele.
They exchanged cards and spoke about taking their daughters, who were the same age, on a playdate.
They didnt get together until the summer of 2016, when Kristina was mid-divorce.
She was intimidated by his intellect.
Its easy to see why.
The evening of Sept. 24, 2016, was their first official date.
On the other line was Steele.
The two were discussing information that would soon become infamous.
He delivers high-quality work that checks out, and he conducts himself discreetly, Steele tells me.
Often it would be talking to people he knew already.
It was his Russian-ness, but also him being an energy expert.
He had a solid track record.
Clients didnt challenge his reporting.
Business intelligence is more intellectual work, Danchenko says, though it sometimes gets down to cloaks and daggers.
He and Steele both speak of his work in broad brushstrokes.
He had an insightful conversation with a source in a regional Russian capital.
Then some other guys came into the restaurant, which, of course, was dimly lit.
They threatened to break his legs.
Good luck with your research, they said before leaving.
You just have to ride with it, Steele says, take the rough with the smooth.
Hed ask one leading question but never a second.
Hed share information, too; foreign sources were always interested in picking the brain of a D.C. insider.
Fusion GPS was paid by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to do opposition research on Trump.
We didnt think wed find much a few bribes maybe.
We had no idea it would be like this.
What a perfect political souvenir to bring to Russia, he thought.
Theyd talk about Trump and rumors of his Russian connections.
Then Danchenko would produce a MAGA hat as a gift for the politically-connected Russian.
He admits to naivete going into the job that led to the Steele Dossier.
He says he didnt even know the phrase opposition research at the time, a shocking oversight.
Sussing out the veracity of what he collected was always up to the agency his job was to gather.
Steele tells me he blames Kramer for the unsanitized document being published, calling it a betrayal.)
And onto it were imposed all these fantasies of liberal media and of conservative media, Danchenko says.
He immediately knew how dangerous his situation was.
He was very vulnerable to Russia: to retaliation, to being deported.
That was a major concern.
Im living in my own country.
Thats a different scenario.
Everyone was freaking out, but he wascertainlyfreaking out.
The dossier painted a complex picture of the Trump campaigns alleged connections with Russia.
These goals transcend politics.
But it took on a life of its own and became sort of a symbol.
He knew the rumors and innuendo hed reported about the Trump campaigns Russia connections were volcanic.
But he never imagined the depth to which it would penetrate the American psyche.
They choose to publish these bits of raw intelligence without giving thought to analyzing or fact-checking.
Media with all this hype, media trying to outcompete each other.
Theres a serious national-security issue here, a serious investigation.
They all played a key part, willingly or not, Lemieux says.
The intelligence community knew better than to use one source as a main contributor to their intelligence assessment.
But they were in a rush.
We had a candidate suspected to be the Manchurian Candidate.
People are rushing to see if the state is compromised.
I can see that, but they really cut corners.
Everyone wanted to believe what they already believed, Lemieux continues.
Thats the big lesson.
There was too much information that was unsupported or never validated.
This goes against whats been reported about the dossier.
And in the seven years since it was released, nobody has stepped forward to corroborate other details.
(Danchenko points to the2020 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reportabout Russian interference as vindication.
Its not about trying to prove somebody a spy and jail them for life, he says.
Its about understanding.)
CAN WE TALK ABOUT the pee tape?
Its almost certainly the one thing you remember from the Steele Dossier.
Trump, in Russia for the Miss Universe contest, was staying in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton.
It was the same suite Barack and Michelle Obama once stayed in.
Trump was with some powerful Russian oligarchs, who brought the sex workers.
And theres been no other corroboration or evidence supporting Steeles account.)
We had no idea it would be like this.
They kind of had a laugh about it, Danchenko continues.
To me it sounds like this stupid college prank.
The pee tape hijacked the dialogue of serious allegations about Russian influence with huge geopolitical importance.
The American response was predictable: All nuance was lost.
The obsession with the pee tape, Danchenko believes, diverted focus from a more substantive conversation.
As we talk, Danchenko smokes a cigarette on a bench near his daughters old elementary school.
The perfect spring day is punctuated by sounds of a nearby coach-pitch youth baseball game.
I ask what parts of Trumps Russian connections he wished America had focused on.
He brings up Aras Agalarov, the billionaire Azerbaijani real-estate developer with deep ties to Trump.
Construction business is big business, and its highly criminal everywhere, Danchenko says.
Theres all kinds of kickbacks.
Nobody gets anything for nothing.
You think this school was built without kickbacks?
Whos the contractor of this school?
How did the contractor win the contract?
An open and fair process?
Certainly there is corruption, Danchenko continues.
How big was it in the case of Trump and the Agalarovs and Putin?
Is that the real pee tape?
I still think theres some leverage they hold against Trump.
You want to call it pee tape?
Call it pee tape.
(Agalarovhas deniedhis dealings with Trump were on behalf of Putin.)
Trumps trial didnt captivate the public because of his companys falsified ledgers.
Like the pee tape, it captivated the public with sex.
And in both cases, Danchenko says, the American imagination focused on the wrong things.
What surprised me is how the other stuff was also normalized, he says.
Its like it never happened.
I understand years go by and things become less relevant with time.
But theyve normalized it to the point where its like, So what?
EARLIER THIS YEAR, Danchenko took a trip to London.
One of those meetings was with Steele.
It was the first time hed seen Steele since his public outing.
Kristina wanted her husband to give Steele hell in person.
Danchenko wasnt so sure.
Despite everything, he still had warm feelings for his old boss.
Hed subcontracted with him for more than a decade.
And frankly, he needed work.
The meeting with Steele and the companys co-founder was tense, Danchenko says.
And Im minus a half-million [dollars] and a few years of my life over this.
My kids lost their childhoods over this.
You have your pensions, your lives.
Danchenko says he hasnt given up, not on work and not in life.
But at his home outside D.C., he remains inert and emasculated.
He posts on LinkedIn.
He cleans the house and mows the lawn.
He hasnt had a drink since shortly after his acquittal.
He is learning Dutch.
He fears further retribution if Trump wins, wondering if theyll have to flee the country.
Hes sent me countless text messages that go on for pages.
I spent several days with him and his family at their home in the spring.
It can prove frustrating.
Suddenly, his voice breaks.
Hes almost heaving, continuing to speak while trying to catch his breath.
His cheeks dampen with tears.
It isnt because hes recounting how much this debacle has taken from his life.
That hed reshaped how the United States perceived outside threats.
Goosebumps stand on Danchenkos arm as he recounts this moment: Validation that his work had meant something.
Gone, Kristina tells me.
Sometimes he says to me, Im not the man you fell in love with.
I dont care how much money he would make.
Anything where he could feel like all of this was not forgotten.
After their meeting in London, Danchenko texted Steele a long note of thanks.
Steele promised hed give a shot to do his best to support him, personally and professionally.
Soon, Danchenko would find his first meaningful freelance work since his outing.
Perhaps it would be the beginning of his careers resurrection.
Danchenko wasnt holding out hope.
Yes, Iggy old friend, Steele texted back.
It was a difficult but informative conversation.
