Explosive Lawsuit: Trump Takes on Former British Spy Over Infamous Russia Dossier

Former President Donald Trump is filing a lawsuit against Christopher Steele, a retired British intelligence officer, concerning the controversial dossier he compiled. The dossier, notorious for its unverified and scandalous allegations about Trump, rocked Washington upon its release. This lawsuit, which accuses Steele and his business, Orbis Business Intelligence, of data protection breaches, adds another layer to the ongoing dossier saga, which first surfaced in January 2017, just days before Trump assumed office.

The credibility of the dossier has significantly declined over the years due to various US government investigations and lawsuits, which discredit many of its central allegations and reveal the unreliability of Steele's sources.

According to court documents, the legal action initiated by the former president is scheduled to begin on October 16th at Londons High Court. However, Trump is not anticipated to be present at the two-day hearing, as per a reliable source familiar with his plans.

CNN has contacted Orbis Business Intelligence for a comment.

President Trump's latest lawsuit is filed several months after special counsel John Durham concluded his investigation into possible misconduct in the FBI's inquiry on Trump-Russia connections.

Durham's findings shed more light on the flaws in Steeles' work and the content of his dossier. Nevertheless, Durham's pursuit of a criminal case against Steeles' main source, Russian analyst Igor Danchenko, resulted in an acquittal in the previous year.

Danchenko, the aforementioned sub-source, informed US investigators that the information he provided to Steele was primarily based on "hearsay," "casual conversations," "rumors," and anecdotes shared during informal gatherings with friends, as per the reports from the Justice Department. Additionally, Danchenko mentioned that Steele exaggerated the contents of the memos and relied too heavily on the unverified information he received.

Meanwhile, Steele consistently asserted that his claims were unverified, necessitated additional investigation, and were not intended for public disclosure. In his first television interview regarding the dossier in 2021, Steele affirmed, "I stand by the work we conducted, the sources we relied upon, and the professionalism we demonstrated."

Numerous US governmental investigations revealed numerous connections between Trump campaign affiliates and Russian individuals, acknowledgments that have been made subsequently. Notably, Trump and his closest advisors even embraced Kremlin's interference in the election. However, the cumulative evidence did not substantiate the collusion insinuated in Steele's memos.

The funding of the Steele dossier has been under intense political scrutiny for years. It was revealed one year after the 2016 election that Democrats indirectly paid Steele to investigate Trump. Over $1 million was transferred from Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee to the law firm Perkins Coie, which subsequently hired Fusion GPS, an opposition research company. Fusion GPS then hired Steele and tasked him with utilizing his international connections to uncover information about Trump's connections to Russia. As a result of this lack of disclosure, both Clintons campaign and the DNC were fined by US election regulators.

Steele has been involved in a number of civil lawsuits in the US and UK related to the dossier. In the course of Durham's inquiry into the Trump-Russia investigation, he examined certain connections between Steele and the FBI, although no charges were ultimately brought against the former spy. This report includes contributions from CNN's Marshall Cohen.