From Fox News:
FOX NEWS - The former British spy who put together an unverified dossier of explosive allegations about President Trump during last year’s campaign has been ordered to give a deposition in a multi-million-dollar libel case brought against a media outlet that published the document.
Former MI-6 British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele is fighting the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro, of the Southern District of Florida that he must answer questions in the suit against Buzzfeed. A lawyer directly involved in the case said the issue will likely be argued before the British courts where a similar libel case is being heard.
Steele's London-based company, Orbis Business Intelligence, authored the 35-page dossier while working for American-based Fusion GPS and its founder Glenn Simpson. The document, which was crafted as opposition research for unknown political rivals of Trump, contained salacious charges involving Trump and Russian prostitutes, but none of the claims have been corroborated and most media outlets steered clear of the dossier.
In January, Buzzfeed set off an international firestorm when it chose to publish the entire dossier, which also included seamy allegations involving Russian technology guru Aleksej Gubarev and his companies, XBT Holdings and Webzilla.
The dossier claimed XBT and Webzilla used "botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct 'altering operations' against the Democtratic Party leadership."
Gubarev's Boston-based attorney, Evan Fray-Witzer, told Fox News he asked the Florida judge to help ensure Steele answer questions.
"We asked the Court in Florida to issue a ‘Request for International Judicial Assistance,’” Fray-Witzer said. The request would have the Florida court ask its British counterpart compel Steele submit to a sworn deposition that would be taken in London and videotaped to be played to the jury at trial.
Steele's lawyers unsuccessfully asked Ungaro to reject the request.
“That dispute will move to London, where we expect Mr. Steele will continue to try to avoid being deposed," Fray-Witzer said.
While the libel suit does not directly involve Trump, a jury trial could prove explosive as the dossier and Buzzfeed’s vetting process would undergo a thorough examination
"We are absolutely looking forward to a jury trial,” Fray-Witzer said. “Buzzfeed published the dossier - and the comments about our clients - without having made any effort whatsoever to determine if the things said about our clients were true. They don't even claim otherwise."
The dossier was repeatedly shopped around on both sides of the Atlantic and to various media outlets during the heated 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The charges it contained were damning to Trump both personally and in terms of purporting to show how Russia sought to help him with hacking, leaks and fake news stories.
"We know from what Steele has said in the British lawsuit that - at Fusion's instruction - he briefed reporters at The New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News, the New Yorker, CNN and Mother Jones about the dossier,” Fray-Witzer said. “To their credit, not a one of them actually published the dossier. Only Buzzfeed did that and we think that says something about where Buzzfeed's priorities were. This was about "clicks," not about responsible reporting."
Nicola Cain, one of Steele’s British attorneys, declined comment, stating that she has "no instructions to speak about their client to the press."
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