The British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele became prominent after authoring the sensational Trump Dossier in 2016. It seems a decade before this explosive report came out, Steele befriended President Donald Trump’s beloved daughter and senior White House advisor Ivanka Trump.
At one point in time, Steele was even a contender for being recruited by the Trump Organization to manage their foreign projects in China and Russia. However, that did not come to fruition. After Steele’s bid to work for the Trump Organization petered out, Steele took a route diametrically opposite to the one he contemplated earlier.
In the Justice Department’s Inspector General report released on Monday, Steele recounts that he had “been friendly with” Ivanka.
SLIDESHOW: TOP DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020
According to sources, Ivanka met Steele at a dinner in 2007. They both were in touch soon. They worked together and met sometimes in person. ABC News reported they maintained contact through email for several years. According to the Post, the two kept their friendship all through 2015.
The reported relationship throws a wrench in President Trump’s continued claims that Steele was politically motivated and prejudiced towards him when he compiled the dossier. On the contrary, Steele said in the inspector general’s report that he was “favorably disposed” to the Trump family because of his friendship with Ivanka Trump.
Steele gathered, organized, analyzed and synthesized information for the Washington political research firm namely Fusion GPS.
The dossier became wildly popular among U.S. intelligence officials. It became part of the public domain when BuzzFeed News published it in entirety only a few days before Trump took office.
