Trump sues ex-British spy Christopher Steele over infamous Russia dossier

Two day hearing for data protection claim set to take place next month in London’s High Court

Donald Trump is suing an ex-British spy over the Steele dossier which made a string of explosive claims against the former president and his alleged links to Russia.

Mr Trump has brought a data protection claim against Christopher Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence in the UK’s High Court, records show.

The dossier was published by Buzzfeed just 10 days before Mr Trump took office in January 2017 after beating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.

Mr Steele, who used to work on MI6’s Russia desk, was hired to put together the dossier by Washington DC-based research firm Fusion GPS.

Perkins Coie, the law firm for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, later acknowledged its role in funding the dossier by retaining Fusion GPS.

According to a court order published in London on Thursday, a two-day hearing in Mr Trump’s legal action is set to start on 16 October.

Mr Steele, who used to work undercover in Moscow, alleged in the dossier that Mr Trump had been “compromised” by the Russian security service, the FSB.

It also made claims of “kompromat” material involving Mr Trump and prostitutes at a Russian hotel, although there is no evidence that the tape actually exists.

Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled the explosive dossier (AFP via Getty Images)

Mr Trump has always strongly denied the allegations made in the dossier and any suggestion that he was compromised by the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin.

Mr Steele had also been a confidential informant for the FBI since 2013 and his past work was “considered credible” by US officials.

A 2019 Justice Department watchdog report stated that the CIA viewed Mr Steele’s material as “Internet rumor” and claimed that he had a “lack of self-awareness” and was “underpinned by poor judgement.”

A 2022 bipartisan Senate report raised concerns that some of Mr Steele’s material was Russian disinformation and stated that “the tradecraft reflected in the dossier is generally poor relative to (US intelligence community) standards.”

Mr Trump and his supporters have characterized his links with Russia as the “Russia hoax” or simply “Russia, Russia, Russia.”

Donald Trump has always denied the contents of the Steele dossier (AFP via Getty Images)

However, the Mueller Report found that although there was “no collusion” with Russia, Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign was eager to benefit from Kremlin intervention.

“The investigation established multiple links between Trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government,” the more than 400-page report stated.

The investigation also identified 10 instances of possible obstruction of justice by Mr Trump as he tried to shut down investigations, but the report stated that Mr Mueller could not conclusively determine that Trump had committed a crime or that he hadn’t.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Helsinki, Finland in July 2018 (Getty Images)

Mr Steele defended the dossier in a 2021 ABC News interview as “credible reporting”, but admitted that he knew some of the claims “may never be provable.”

He also said that the dossier was right about three of its largest claims: Russia’s spy agencies interfered in the 2016 US presidential election; Vladimir Putin approved the operation; their goal was to help Mr Trump’s candidacy and hurt that of Ms Clinton.

There also remain questions over the unexplained links between senior Russian figures and the likes of Trump insiders such as Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort.

In May 2017, Mr Trump was accused of leaking sensitive information during a White House meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Mr Trump allegedly gave up classified information gathered by Israel about ISIS terrorist plotting. He later defended his “absolute right” to share the information with Russia.