Christopher Steele says his Trump-Russia dossier records were destroyed three years ago

Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, best known internationally as the originator of the dossier that helped bolster popular belief in the Trump-Russia collusion theory, has claimed that the files he used to compile that document were wiped from his computer several years ago. 

Steele made that revelation as part of his testimony last month in a lawsuit brought by several Russian nationals. Asked about the documents that were used to develop the controversial dossier, the former agent said they "were wiped in early January 2017," shortly before Trump took office. 

The lawsuit against Steele was brought by three Russian citizens who were named in the dossier as having participated in hacking efforts against the Democratic National Committee. Steele said during testimony that he has "no record" of the intelligence that went into making those allegations, presumably because it was destroyed along with the rest of Steele's files in 2017. 

Steele compiled the dossier throughout the second half of 2016 using a multitude of sources, including one Russian "sub-source" who later said he was simply relaying political gossip from Moscow rather than true intelligence.