UK agent who wrote Trump sex dossier was helped to spy on the Russians by MI6
He teamed up with ex-bosses to probe Putin’s World Cup bid
THE former British spy behind the Donald Trump dirty dossier had help from Britain’s security services when he worked on England’s 2018 World Cup bid, it emerged yesterday.
Ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele was assisted by former colleagues after the FA hired him to gather information on the countries hoping to host the tournament – in particular Russia.
His continued close links to the security services emerged a day after the Russian embassy in London blamed Britain for claims about Mr Trump and the Kremlin.
The explosive dossier alleged the Republican had been cosying up to Russian president Vladimir Putin and cavorting with prostitutes. The president-elect dismissed the report as ‘false and fictitious’.
It has also been claimed Mr Steele, who left MI6 in 2009 before setting up private firm Orbis Business Intelligence, sought the Government’s permission before he met the FBI to discuss his 35-page dossier on Mr Trump. The Football Association is said to have recruited Mr Steele to work on their bid after Lord Coe – chairman of the London 2012 Olympics – suggested officials gathered intelligence on their rivals.
Details of his relationship with the security services were alluded to in evidence given to a parliamentary committee examining corruption in football in 2014, where he was described as an ‘ex-MI6 source’.
The evidence submitted said Mr Steele had been hired to work on England’s bid for the World Cup – now due to be hosted by Russia – as officials ‘wanted to better understand what they were up against’.
It added: ‘A consortium of sponsors and associates of the England 2018 bid hired one private intelligence agency with close links to MI6 to conduct surveillance on the eight other bidding nations soon after the official bid committee was formed in late 2009, sources say.
‘That agency ... continued investigating evidence of corruption in rival bids until mid-2011, with a particular focus on Russia 2018.’
The evidence quoted England bid sources as saying they had received assistance from ‘Britain’s official security services’ to set up surveillance countermeasures because they feared Russia was spying on them.
It was Mr Steele’s work exposing possible criminal activities in football and its governing body Fifa that brought him in contact with the FBI, US officials have said.
He went on to meet agents from the FBI who had been assigned to investigate ‘Eurasian Organised Crime’ in London in summer 2010 to discuss alleged Fifa corruption
Last year Mr Steele met one of the same FBI agents to discuss his dossier – thought to have been commissioned by a wealthy Republican donor who opposed Mr Trump – before speaking to other agents based in the US. It was claimed that Mr Steele eventually cut off contact with the FBI about a month before November’s presidential election because he was frustrated by its slow progress.
After he was identified as the doc-
‘Moscow’s used to taking action’
ument’s author, Mr Steele fled his £1.5million home in Surrey on Wednesday amid concerns that there could be a backlash against him from Moscow.
A business rival yesterday told how Orbis Business Intelligence had a reputation for ‘vigorously touting for work’. It was also claimed that US spies had warned Israel not to share intelligence with Mr Trump in case it was passed on to the Kremlin. The allegation that Russia had ‘levers of power’ over the president- elect – made in the Israeli media – could not be confirmed.
Asked about UK involvement in the Trump dossier, Theresa May said it was ‘absolutely clear that the individual who produced this dossier has not worked for the UK Government for years’.
Government sources insisted that neither the dossier nor Mr Steele had been raised by Mr Trump’s team during discussions with Britain on other issues.
Ex-British ambassador to Russia Sir Andrew Wood said the ex-spy had been right to fear for his life because Moscow was ‘accustomed to taking action’. He told the BBC: ‘Russia would like to know where he got his information ... assuming he has not just made it up, which I do not believe for a moment.’
Last night it was unclear who had hired Mr Steele to work on FA’s 2018 World Cup bid, led by then-FA chairman Lord Triesman and Prince William, how he was recruited and how much he was paid.
A spokesman for Lord Coe said he ‘states categorically that he had nothing to do with [Mr] Steele’s involvement with the bid team and he has never even met the man’.
The FA and the bid team refused to comment. But a senior FA source confirmed Mr Steele was employed by the bidding board.
MI6 declined to comment on its alleged close involvement with Mr Steele during the World Cup bid.