Steele Dossier’s Billionaire Claim ‘Misleading’, Judge Says
- Ex-spy failed to verify critical claim, London judge rules
- Billionaire Mikhail Fridman called allegations ‘odious’
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A central allegation by a former British spy in his dossier about alleged ties between Moscow and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was “inaccurate and misleading,” a London judge ruled.
Christopher Steele stated in his report that Mikhail Fridman and his fellow Alfa Group billionaire Petr Aven arranged for the delivery of “large amounts of illicit cash” to Vladimir Putin in the 1990s. But Judge Mark Warby ruled Wednesday that Steele’s intelligence firm “failed to take reasonable steps to verify the allegation” as he awarded 18,000 pounds ($22,600) in compensation to each man.