Christopher Steele
Christopher Steele | |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 June 1964 |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Secret Intelligence Service (1987–2009) Private intelligence consultant |
| Known for | Steele dossier |
| Spouses | Laura Hunt
(m. 1990; died 2009)Katherine Steele (m. 2012) |
| Children | 4 |
Christopher David Steele (born 24 June 1964) is a British former intelligence officer with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He ran the Russia desk at MI6 headquarters in London between 2006 and 2009. In 2009, he co-founded Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm.
Steele became the focus of controversy after he authored a 35-page series of memos for a controversial political opposition research report known as the Steele dossier. It was prepared for Fusion GPS, a firm hired by an attorney associated with the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. The dossier claims, based on anonymous sources, that Russia collected a file of compromising information on Donald Trump and that his presidential campaign conspired to cooperate with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
Trump and his allies have falsely claimed the Crossfire Hurricane FBI probe into Russian interference was launched due to Steele's dossier. The Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee concluded in an April 2018 report that the FBI probe had been triggered by previous information from Trump adviser George Papadopoulos; the February 2018 Nunes memo reached the same conclusion.