![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/AP_17185443801727.jpg\")
<\/a>Rahmat Gul AP<\/p><\/div>\n
BY KEVIN G. HALL
\nMcCatchyDc.com<\/p>\n
Sen. John McCain faces questions in a defamation lawsuit about leaks leading to publication of the now-infamous dossier that alleged Donald Trump\u2019s campaign had connections to Russian operatives, McClatchy has learned.<\/p>\n
The dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and his London firm, Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., amounted to a collection of uncorroborated reports of collusion gathered as political research for sale to Trump\u2019s opponents. It proved explosive when published by online news site BuzzFeed on Jan. 10.<\/p>\n
Now, two lawsuits \u2014 one in the United States and a second in the U.K. \u2014 are being brought by lawyers for Aleksej Gubarev, a Cyprus-based Internet entrepreneur whom Steele\u2019s Russian sources accused of cyber spying against the Democratic Party leadership.<\/p>\n
According to a new court document in the British lawsuit, counsel for defendants Steele and Orbis repeatedly point to McCain, R-Ariz., a vocal Trump critic, and a former State Department official as two in a handful of people known to have had copies of the full document before it circulated among journalists and was published by BuzzFeed.<\/p>\n
The court document obtained by McClatchy confirms that Sir Andrew Wood, a former British ambassador to Moscow and a Russia adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, discussed the 35-page dossier with McCain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Defendants considered that the issues were self-evidently relevant to the national security of the US, UK and their allies,\u201d the document says, explaining why Steele and his partner, Christopher Burrows, felt it necessary to share the dossier\u2019s findings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Wood had told Britain\u2019s\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>\u00a0in January\u00a0that McCain had reached out\u00a0<\/a>to him about the dossier, and had obtained it through other means. The court document confirms that Wood, Steele and former State Department official David Kramer decided together that new information gathered after the election should be shared with authorities in Britain and the United States.<\/p>\n A McCain spokesperson declined to comment Monday on the new court document, pointing instead to\u00a0a Jan. 11 statement\u00a0<\/a>from the veteran senator about the dossier. \u201cUpon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the director of the FBI,\u201d McCain had said then. \u201cThat has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent congressional testimony, ex-FBI Director James Comey, fired by Trump amid a widening probe, acknowledged receiving the dossier from McCain on Jan. 6. Kramer, a former State Department official who until recently served\u00a0as a senior director\u00a0<\/a>at Arizona State University\u2019s McCain Institute for International Leadership, declined comment.<\/p>\n The British court documents are legal responses in the British suit and do not reflect the entire docket. The British suit is related to a\u00a0similar lawsuit in the United States\u00a0<\/a>against online news site BuzzFeed.<\/p>\n 'BuzzFeed Runs Unverifiable Trump-Russia Claims' #FakeNews<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/d6daCFZHNh<\/a><\/p>\n — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n