former U.S. President Donald Trump has initiated a lawsuit against Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, and the intelligence consultancy he founded, Orbis Business Intelligence. The lawsuit, filed in the high court in England, centers on a data protection claim brought by Trump against Steele and his consultancy. This legal action comes amidst Trump’s ongoing legal battles in his home country.

According to a court order made public on Thursday, a two-day hearing for this legal matter is scheduled to commence on October 16, as reported by the PA news agency. However, Trump himself is not expected to attend the proceedings.

The lawsuit brings into focus Christopher Steele’s prominent role as the author of the widely discussed “Steele dossier.” This dossier contained allegations that Donald Trump had been “compromised” by the Russian security service, the FSB. It also claimed that Vladimir Putin had “supported and directed” efforts to “cultivate” Trump as a presidential candidate for “at least five years.” These allegations, leaked to BuzzFeed in 2017, were consistently denied by Trump.

Previously, Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence were sued for libel by Russian national Aleksej Gubarev over the publication of the dossier. Gubarev claimed that they were legally responsible for BuzzFeed’s decision to publish the dossier. However, in a judgment handed down in October 2020, Mr. Justice Warby dismissed the claim.

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Donald Trump currently faces four criminal indictments, including a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Trump has maintained his not guilty plea in all four cases and has repeatedly characterized the litigation against him as politically motivated.

In recent developments, the judge overseeing Trump’s federal election meddling case, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, declined to recuse herself despite Trump’s requests, citing a lack of evidence supporting claims of bias. A similar decision was made by the judge presiding over Trump’s hush-money case, Juan Manuel Merchan, who ruled that he had the “ability to be fair and impartial.”

Who is Christopher Steele?

Christopher David Steele, born on June 24, 1964, is a former British intelligence officer who served with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. During his career, he ran the Russia desk at MI6 headquarters in London from 2006 to 2009. Subsequently, in 2009, Steele co-founded Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm.

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Steele gained significant notoriety for his role in authoring a 35-page series of memos, collectively known as the Steele dossier. These memos were prepared for Fusion GPS, a firm hired by an attorney associated with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. The dossier, which relied on anonymous sources, claimed that Russia had collected compromising information on Donald Trump and alleged cooperation between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 elections.