Trump dossier spy meets US investigators

US team in talks with former agent ‘sitting on a nuclear weapon’ of claims about Putin links

The former British spy behind a controversial dossier about Donald Trump’s links with Russia has spent two days talking to a team of US investigators. Christopher Steele met colleagues of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling during the race for the White House, according to reports. The questioning will enable investigators to judge at first hand whether they think Mr Steele’s claims are worthy of following up.

THE former British spy behind a controversial dossier about Donald Trump’s links with Russia has spent two days talking to a team of US investigators, it was reported yesterday.

Christopher Steele met colleagues of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling, according to the Washington Post.

It means that investigators will be able to judge at first hand whether they think the claims reported by Mr Steele in the dossier are trustworthy.

Mr Steele had previously refused to appear before Congressional committees looking into how Russia may have interfered in the 2016 election.

The Post also reported that Mr Steele had compared possessing the information he found about Mr Trump to “sitting on a nuclear weapon”.

The newspaper’s 4,000-word article provides the fullest picture yet of how Mr Steele acted after uncovering claims that the Russians had compromising material on Mr Trump.

Mr Steele and his “dossier”, a series of memos written after he was given funding by first Republican and then Democrat opponents of Mr Trump, lies at the heart of the row over Russian interference in the race for the White House. Among the claims made was that Mr Trump asked prostitutes to conduct lurid sex acts while in Russia. Mr Trump has denied the allegations.

The dossier, published by Buzzfeed after the election, has become the focus of a partisan battle over the Russian investigation, which is looking into links with the Trump campaign team.

Republicans have sought to portray Mr Steele as politically motivated and his claims as unfounded, indicating the entire Russian investigation is constructed on his faulty intelligence.

Democrats have painted Mr Steele as someone who passed on concerns in good faith and stressed his information was not the only reason for starting the Russia investigation. The Post described how Mr Steele, a Russian expert so trusted that he had provided briefings for UK prime ministers and at least one other US president, got drawn into the Trump case.

It went on to describe how after Mr Steele’s consulting firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, was commissioned to look into Mr Trump, he became increasingly concerned by the discoveries coming from his network of informants.

Mr Steele eventually reached out to the FBI, with whom he had worked to expose corruption at Fifa.

He met Post journalists twice before the election to get them to print the claims, once “visibly agitated”. The

Post, however, declined to publish as they were unable to verify his claims.

Mr Steele contacted old intelligence colleagues for advice, apparently convinced the information he had found was significant to national security. Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, met Mr Steele and his colleague at London’s Garrick Club.

Sir Andrew Wood, a British former diplomat and friend of Mr Steele, was also asked for his thoughts. “He wanted to share the burden a bit,” Mr Wood told the Post. After Mr Trump won, an ally of John Mccain, the Republican senator, visited Britain to meet Mr Steele and read the dossier for himself. He was reportedly told to “look for a man wearing a blue raincoat and carrying a Financial Times under his arm” at Heathrow Airport. The dossier was eventually passed to Mr Mccain.

♦ Rob Porter has resigned as White House staff secretary after allegations of domestic violence. Mr Porter, 40, was described as a close aide to Donald Trump. The Daily Mail published a protection order from his second wife and photos of his first wife with a black eye. Mr Porter called the accusations “outrageous” and “simply false”.

‘Republicans have sought to portray Mr Steele as politically motivated and his claims as unfounded’