Former British spy paid more than £125,000 to detail Donald Trump Russia links

A former British spy was paid more than £125,000 to outline Russian financial and personal links to Donald Trump’s election campaign.

کد خبر: ۷۴۳۶۴۹

تاریخ: ۱۱ آبان ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۰:۲۶

Fusion GP, a Washington DC based research firm, hired former MI6 officer Christopher Steele to collect information about the US President and his advisers.

A total of $168,000 (£126,000) was paid to Orbis Business Intelligence, Mr Steele’s company, to produce the "Trump dossier”, Fusion GPS said in a statement.

It had previously not been disclosed how Mr Steele’s company was paid, but Mr Trump had tweeted that it had cost $12 million (£9 million), without citing any sources for the claim.

"Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),....,” Mr Trump tweeted.

The collection of memos, which alleges the existence of a Russian programme "cultivating, supporting and assisting" Mr Trump to the presidency, was known to have circulated among intelligence officials and top politicians in Washington.

Court filings submitted by Mr Steele stated that he shared the memo with a British "national security official" in their official capacity.

Unconfirmed reports in the document, which Mr Steele previously told The Independent had been passed to British authorities, cover "at least" five years of communication, co-operation and conspiracy between Mr Trump's camp and Russian intelligence officials.

Sources have also claimed that Moscow is capable of blackmailing the new president, and detail "perverted sexual acts" committed by Mr Trump as evidence.

According to his court papers, Mr Steele decided to hand the dossier over "on a confidential basis in hard copy form" to the British intelligence services because it "had implications for the national security of the US and the UK", as well as being "of considerable importance in relation to alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election".

The dossier came into the public eye when it was published by the Buzzfeed website, who stressed they were "unverified and potentially unverifiable".

Mr Trump dismissed the wide-ranging allegations as "fake news"

Mr Steele originally compiled the report for political opponents of Mr Trump in Washington, and was forced to go into hiding after being identified as its author.

Sources familiar with Mr Steele’s work said his for Fusion GPS started in May 2016 and stopped with the election.

His reports are pivotal to investigations into allegations that Russia attempted to help the Trump campaign.

Both Moscow and Mr Trump deny any collusion and have branded the investigation a witch hunt.