A DOSSIER CONTAINING claims about Donald Trump that alleges he has been compromised by Russian intelligence agencies was compiled by former British spies, it has been revealed.
The unsubstantiated 35-page report said that Moscow has plotted for years to build ties with Trump and offered him “various sweetener business deals” which he declined.
The report also claimed that Russian spies had obtained compromising sexual material involving Trump that was allegedly collected while the President-elect was in Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant.
Trump was briefed by US intelligence agencies about the contents of the report and the President-elect has blamed them for leaking to the media.
Trump has branded the report as branded “phony” and “fake news” and labelled Buzzfeed News a “failing pile of garbage” for publishing it.
Despite publishing the contents of the dossier, Buzzfeed has said that it can not back up the claims contained in it.
The Wall Street Journal has now revealed that the dossier in question was prepared by London-based Orbis Business Intelligence and was written by its director Christopher Steele
It’s reported that Steele, who leads the company with co-director Christopher Burrows, is a former British intelligence officer with MI6.
On its website, Orbis describes itself as “founded in 2009 by former British intelligence professionals.”
The dossier says Russia’s intelligence services, directed by President Vladimir Putin, sought to support Trump and hurt his rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.
It said the Trump campaign maintained regular contact with Russian officials and operatives.
One part of the report, which said Trump lawyer Michael Cohen met with the Russians, has been flatly denied by the Trump camp. Cohen said yesterday that he had never travelled to Russia or to Prague as claimed in the report.
At today’s press conference, Trump refused to answer questions about whether his campaign team had interacted with Russian operatives.
- With reporting by © – AFP 2017
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