US

Ex-Spy Who Wrote Trump Dossier Really Doesn’t Want To Testify In BuzzFeed Lawsuit

(YouTube screen grab)

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the Trump dossier, is hoping to avoid giving a deposition in a defamation lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed for publishing the sensational and uncorroborated document.

Steele’s attorneys filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida on Thursday, asking Judge Ursula Ungaro to rescind her motion requesting assistance from a court in the United Kingdom to compel the London-based Steele to testify.

Ungaro is presiding over a lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive who was accused in the dossier of using malware and computer viruses to hack into the Democratic National Committee’s computer systems. (RELATED: Trump Dossier Author May Soon Testify In Buzzfeed Lawsuit)

Earlier Thursday, Ungaro approved a request by Gubarev’s attorneys to compel Steele, a former MI6 agent with experience in Moscow, to provide a deposition in the case.

But Steele’s attorneys assert that Gubarev is attempting an “end-run” around prohibitions in the U.K., where Gubarev is suing Steele.

“The deposition sought is impermissible and unlawful on multiple grounds, not the least of which is that the self-same Plaintiffs have a direct defamation action pending against Mr. Steele in the United Kingdom in which the requested deposition is strictly prohibited,” wrote Steele’s lawyers at Alston & Bird, a U.S.-based law firm.

“Plaintiffs thus are seeking to employ this Court in an end-run around their limitations in their parallel U.K. action.”

Steele’s lawyers are also asking Ungaro for a two-week extension to provide a more detailed argument against the motion to compel him to testify.

Steele has provided written responses to questions from Gubarev in the U.K. lawsuit, but he is apparently protected from having to provide a deposition in that proceeding.

Steele’s claims about Gubarev are made in the last of 17 memos that make up the uncorroborated dossier, which BuzzFeed published on Jan. 10 and contains a number of salacious claims about Trump and his campaign. Steele’s first memo is dated June 20. The final entry — the one accusing Gubarev of hacking the DNC — is dated Dec. 13.

Gubarev has strongly denied the allegations made in the dossier. In the U.S. proceedings, he has claimed that BuzzFeed defamed him by publishing the document without contacting him for contact beforehand.

Gubarev’s lawyers provided a list of topics they’d like to explore in a deposition with Steele, who began his investigation after being hired last June by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was working for a political ally of Hillary Clinton’s.

Gubarev’s lawyers want to find out how Steele obtained information for the dossier, who his sources are, and whether he vetted the sources. They also want to know details about how Fusion GPS and Steele distributed the dossier to the media.

Follow Chuck on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel