The bombshell dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials was never meant to be publicly released, the British spy behind the documents said in court documents, according to The Washington Times.
Some of the work, according to spy Christopher Steele, still "needed to be analyzed and further investigated/verified," yet he still passed it along to U.K. and U.S. government officials. Specifically, his charges a Russian entrepreneur and his tech companies were working for Russian intelligence and helped Russia hack into Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, came from "unsolicited intelligence" and "raw intelligence."
Steele is being sued for defamation for those assertions, but says he was betrayed by his client and he followed proper protocol in releasing the documents.
Buzzfeed first published the dossier in its entirety Jan. 10.
Steele in his legal filing claims he was a victim of Fusion GPS – the Washington, D.C., firm that hired him to do the research initially.
"The defendants did not provide any of the pre-election memoranda to media organizations or journalists – nor did they authorize anyone to do so,” Steele said through his attorney. "Nor did they provide the confidential December memorandum to media organizations or journalists. Nor did they authorize anyone to do so."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.