Steele says he regrets the publication of the Trump-Russia dossier – (no doubt!)

Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele testified Wednesday that he never intended for his 2016 compilation of unverified reports about Russia’s links to Donald Trump to go public.

Steele is facing a defamation lawsuit in London’s High Court from tech entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev over BuzzFeed’s publication of the dossier just 10 days before Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.

The Russian-born executive lost a separate case against BuzzFeed in a Miami federal court in December 2018.

Steele’s private firm Orbis compiled raw intelligence commissioned by Trump’s rivals during his presidential campaign.

Some of its findings were used by special counsel Robert Mueller to conduct a two-year investigation that found evidence of Russian interference but no collusion with Trump’s team.

But large portions of the dossier have either never been verified or have been proven wrong.

Gubarev on Tuesday denied claims in the dossier that Russia’s security services used his Cyprus-registered internet provider Webzilla to hack into the campaign of Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton.

The stolen data proved damaging to Clinton when they were released by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks website in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Steele said on Wednesday that he would have done “whatever I could do to prevent” BuzzFeed from publishing his dossier had he known its reporters had a copy.

“Our business depends on the confidentiality of our clients and sources. If these are exposed to the world, no one will contact Orbis to do discreet work on their behalf,” Steele said in a written statement released in court.

Sure, but then Steele added that he provided an undisclosed number of “off-the-record” briefings to hand-picked reporters after being asked to by Orbis’ clients, which doesn’t add up to the previous statement.

Steele’s dossier gained near-mythical status in the initial stages of Trump’s presidency -thanks to the anti-Trump media – as rumors swirled about ties between the White House and the Kremlin.

The former member of Britain’s MI6 overseas intelligence agency went into hiding after its publication and still rarely speaks in public.

The recent publication from Attorney General Bill Barr shows that Steele’s dossier was the leading source of the FBI investigation, then the Mueller own, creating a false sense of Trump being indebted for his victory to Russia.

But Steele stressed in his court filings that he always knew that some of his findings were “unverifiable”. So told James Comey before Congress. Then FBI director James Comey confirmed in December 2018 that the dossier was “salacious and unverified”. And James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fought to include information from Christopher Steele’s dossier

raw intelligence of the type compiled by Steele is traditionally used as the basis for further investigations aimed at confirming or denying the claims.

London and separate Miami court filings showed Steele’s report was distributed to BuzzFeed and then other media by a top aide to the late senator John McCain.

Steele’s submission to the London trial said he had actually completed two separate reports that were mistakenly published as one by BuzzFeed.

A “pre-election” dossier compiled between June and October 2016 was commissioned by an opposition research firm that was initially hired by a conservative US newspaper and later by Clinton’s election team.

Steele said he ended up providing copies of that report to the FBI and the U.S. State Department because of its “national security implications.”

He said he handed a separate copy to a UK national security official days after the election because he feared the Trump administration might compromise “British sources and operations.”

Steele said he prepared a second memorandum a month after Trump’s election on his own initiative.

Copies of that report also went to the UK security official and McCain.

“The content of the December memorandum was self-evidently sensitive and confidential,” Steele’s court filing said.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here

0 0 votes

Article Rating

7 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

felix1999

3 years ago

And what has A.G. Barr done about ANY of this?

0

santashandler

3 years ago

Reply to  felix1999

Well, he’s working on it. But first, he just has to figure out how he can remain hidden, while still pretending, er, showing he’s really working hard on the case. He makes a grand entrance at the beginning of the day, then disappears until the end of shift steam whistle.

0

ed

3 years ago

Reply to  felix1999

First, he’s going to have an all-u-can-eat buffet lunch with some DOJ staff to discuss their next steps. Then he will have dinner with DOJ members who couldn’t attend the lunch. Then it’s repeat daily till after the election ensuring nothing will EVER be done….

0

davegrille

3 years ago

Steele should go to prison.

0

whammie

3 years ago

So did the NAZI MURDER camp commandants … AFTER THEY GOT CAUGHT… hang this lying… little whining beoatch

0

Halal Bacon

3 years ago

no, he regrets hilary losing

0

kgolfinghawaii

3 years ago

That LEFT WING HACK is so full of poo as to be laughable. Turd in the punchbowl.

0