Donald Trump sues former British spy, Steele dossier author

LONDON - Former US president Donald Trump is suing a former MI6 officer and the intelligence consultancy he founded, High Court records in Britain show, reported German news agency (dpa).

Trump is bringing a data protection claim against Orbis Business Intelligence and its founder, Christopher Steele, who previously ran the Secret Intelligence Service's Russia desk.

According to a court order published on Thursday, a two-day hearing is set to start on Oct 16, which is thought to be the first hearing in the claim.

No other details have been made available, but Trump is not expected to attend.

Steele was the author of the so-called Steele dossier, which included allegations that Trump had been "compromised" by the Russian security service, the FSB.

The dossier, leaked to BuzzFeed in 2017, also alleged that Vladimir Putin "supported and directed" an operation to "cultivate" Trump as a presidential candidate for "at least five years".

Trump had denied the claims.

Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence were previously sued for libel by Russian national Aleksej Gubarev over the publication of the dossier, claiming they were legally responsible for BuzzFeed publishing the dossier.

However, in a judgment in October 2020, Justice Warby dismissed the claim. - BERNAMA-dpa