- A referral to the FBI’s OGC and Inspection Division of the same FBI agent for questionable instructions given to Danchenko regarding the taxability of cash payments made to him by the FBI.
In addition to the referrals described above, the Office also provided information to the FBI’s Inspection Division regarding certain activities by current and former FBI employees.
A. The Crossfire Hurricane Investigation
1. New York Field Office investigation of Page
In late March 2016, Carter Page, an American energy consultant, was named a foreign policy advisor to the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign. Page’s prior business experience was largely focused on Russian and Eurasian energy issues, and as such, he frequently interacted with various Russian nationals. Based on his previous Russian contacts, Page was known to the FBI and had been interviewed on three occasions between 2009 and 2013 by the NYFO. In 2015, Page was again interviewed by the FBI in connection with the indictment of three Russian intelligence officers in the Southern District of New York. According to the criminal complaint and subsequently returned indictment in that case, Page had been approached by the intelligence officers in an apparent failed recruitment effort.[1] In the criminal complaint, one intelligence officer referred to Page, anonymized as “Male-1,” as an “idiot,” and Page does not seem to have been receptive to the recruitment efforts.[2] Page was interviewed by prosecutors as a possible government witness in that case.[3] One defendant, Evgeny Buryakov, pleaded guilty before trial and was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment.[4] The two other defendants in the case were protected by diplomatic immunity and are no longer in the United States.[5]
In April 2016, shortly after Page was named as an advisor to the Trump campaign, the NYFO opened a counterintelligence investigation of him. According to the case agent in the matter (“NYFO Case Agent-1”), in opening the investigation, the FBI was not so
- ↑ See Sealed Complaint, United States v. Evgeny Buryakov, “a/k/a Zhenya,” et al. (S.D.N.Y.) ¶¶ 1–4 (Jan. 3, 2015) (hereinafter “Buryakov Complaint”) (the Buryakov Complaint has been unsealed.); see U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Attorney General Holder Announces Charges Against Russian Spy Ring in New York City (Jan. 26, 2015); see generally Redacted OIG Review at 61–62 (describing Russian activities in New York and the FBI’s interviews of Page).
- ↑ See Buryakov Complaint at 12–13, ¶¶ 32–34; see also Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett & Adam Entous, FBI Obtained FISA Warrant to Monitor Former Trump Advisor Carter Page, Wash. Post (Apr. 11, 2017) (quoting one of the “Russian spy suspects” as saying that Page was an “idiot”).
- ↑ OSC Report of Interview of NYFO Case Agent-1 on Sept. 5, 2019 at 2.
- ↑ U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York, Russian Banker Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 30 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Work for Russian Intelligence (May 25, 2016).
- ↑ Id. at 4; Nate Raymond, Russian banker accused by U.S. of spy role gets two-and-a-half years prison, Reuters (May 25, 2016).
46
