Donald Trump sues former British spy who claimed he had been 'compromised' by Russia

First court hearing against Orbis Business Intelligence and its founder Christopher Steele is set for October

Former US president Donald Trump has denied allegations that he had inappropriate links with Russia's security services. Reuters

Former US president Donald Trump is suing a former British spy behind a dossier that claimed the American politician was "compromised" by Russia's security services.

High Court records show Mr Trump is bringing a data protection claim against the company Orbis Business Intelligence and its founder Christopher Steele, who previously ran the MI6 intelligence service's Russia desk.

The suit was filed in November last year and the first court hearing is scheduled to start on October 16.

Mr Trump is not expected to attend and no other details of the case have been made available.

The Steele Dossier made headlines around the world when it was leaked to BuzzFeed in January 2017, with allegations that included how Mr Trump had been "compromised" by the Russian security service, the FSB.

It also alleged that Mr Putin "supported and directed" an operation to "cultivate" Mr Trump as a presidential candidate for "at least five years".

Mr Steele, who Mr Trump once called a “low-life,” was retained by a Washington-based research firm, Fusion GPS, in June 2016 to examine Trump’s links to Russia.

The Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton hired Fusion after Mr Trump was headed for the nomination.

Mr Trump denied the claims.

Mr Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence were previously taken to court for libel by Russian national Aleksej Gubarev over the publication of the dossier. He claimed that they were legally responsible for BuzzFeed publishing the papers.

However, in a judgment in October 2020, Mr Justice Warby dismissed the claim.