Two Washington Post articles have been corrected and large portions of the stories removed after they had identified Belarusian American businessman Sergei Millian as a key source of the discredited Steele dossier.
The articles were published in March 2017 and February 2019.
The Post reported the newspaper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, noted it could no longer stand by the accuracy of certain elements.
According to the newspaper, it had identified Millian as "Source D," the unnamed figure who passed on the most salacious allegation in the controversial dossier to its principal author, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
An editor’s note on one of the stories now reads: "The original version of this article published on March 29, 2017, said that Sergei Millian was a source for parts of a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump. That account has been contradicted by allegations contained in a federal indictment filed in November 2021 and undermined by further reporting by The Washington Post.
"As a result, portions of the story and an accompanying video have been removed and the headline has been changed.
"The original account was based on two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide sensitive information. One of those people now says the new information 'puts in grave doubt that Millian' was a source for parts of the dossier. The other declined to comment."
And an editor’s note on another story reads: "An earlier version of this story published on Feb. 7, 2019, referred to previous reporting in The Washington Post that Belarusian-American businessman Sergei Millian had been a source of information for a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump.
"In November 2021, the Post removed that material from the original 2017 story after the account was contradicted by allegations in a federal indictment and undermined by further reporting. References to the initial report have been removed from this piece."
The unusual action by the Post came after Russian Igor Danchenko was charged in special counsel John Durham’s investigation with five counts of making false statements to the FBI. Danchenko, considered the primary researcher of the dossier, pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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