Christopher Steele is a British former intelligence officer for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and ran the Russia desk at MI6 from 2006 to 2009. He later set up his own boutique intelligence firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Steele later compiled what became known as the “Steele dossier,” a series of reports alleging ties between Donald Trump and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The dossier included claims that members of the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russian officials, as well as allegations that Russian authorities possessed compromising material involving Trump. Both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have denied the allegations. Trump has repeatedly characterised the dossier as “discredited,” “debunked,” “fictitious,” and “fake news.”