British ex-spy Christopher Steele gets ‘cold feet,’ backs out of conference: report

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Why was dossier not verified before FISA warrant?

Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who authored an unverified Trump-Russia dossier, has reportedly backed out of a scheduled appearance at a “pro-democracy” conference in Baltimore next week.

The planned appearance-by-video on March 14, would have been Steele’s first public appearance since the dossier was first published in January 2017 by BuzzFeed, according to Politico.

The former MI6 officer was set to speak about “disinformation” at the “Reawakening the Spirit of Democracy Conference” on a panel moderated by Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, Politico reported.

MCCAIN ASSOCIATED SHARED UNVERIFIED STEELE DOSSIER WITH BUZZFEED, COURT FILING SAYS

Applebaum said Steele had gotten “cold feet” and backed out of the event last week on the advice of counsel, the report said. Steele’s private intelligence firm Orbis did not immediately return Fox News’ request for comment.

The so-called “Steele dossier,” which was compiled by the Washington research firm Fusion GPS and commissioned by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), purports to provide conclusive evidence of ties between Trump and Russia.

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The dossier's credibility came under question, however, after the Yahoo News investigative reporter, who was among the first to break news of its existence, said many of its claims were "likely false."

Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.