The latest developments were detailed by Washington Post Style reporter Paul Farhi said in a Friday article.
"The Washington Post on Friday took the unusual step of correcting and removing large portions of two articles, published in March 2017 and February 2019, that had identified a Belarusian American businessman as a key source of the ‘Steele dossier,’ a collection of largely unverified reports that claimed the Russian government had compromising information about then-candidate Donald Trump," the article states.
References to the previously identified source, Belarusian-American businessman Sergei Millian, have been removed by the publication. Original versions of the articles were archived and dozens of other Washington Post stories that made the assertion have also been corrected and amended, Farhi said.
The corrections came following the indictment of analyst and researcher Igor Danchenko for lying to the FBI about not having contact with the creator of the Steele dossier. The indictment was part of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins and handling of the FBI’s probe into alleged Russian collusion.
On Wednesday, Danchenko pleaded not guilty to all five counts of making false statements to the FBI. Danchenko’s trial has been scheduled for the latter half of April 2022, prior to which he will stay under supervised release.
Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee said the publication could no longer back up the accuracy of the claims. The article’s headline was amended, sections identifying Millian as the dossier’s source were removed, as was an accompanying video and an editor’s note explaining the changes was added, Farhi said.