Christopher Steele’s former boss dismisses Trump dossier claims, calls them ‘overrated’

During an interview with journalist Nicholas Ballasy, Christopher Steele’s former boss at MI6, Sir John Scarlett, dismisses the claims made about President Donald Trump in Steele’s dossier.

Scarlett was head of British Intelligence, MI6, when Steele was in charge of the Russia division there.

Transcript of interview:

Q: I wanted to ask you about the dossier that Christopher Steele put together on Trump. What was your reaction when you saw the dossier and looked over it? Did you believe what was in there?

Scarlett: Well, no, I looked at it and I thought these are commercial intelligence reports; I don’t know about the sources — they might be right, they might be wrong and they’ll probably be overrated and they’ve been overrated. 

Q: So you don’t think it will be verified — many of the claims in there?

Scarlett: No.

Q: And with Christopher Steele, because you worked with him, were you surprised he would put together something like that with claims that were not verified on the president?

Scarlett: Well, they were commercial intelligence reports and they were visibly that so there’s a question of why they were there and where they came from and who commissioned them and so on. So I’ve tended to see them in that context and never quite of political significance for obvious reasons and actually if you think about it, people have talked about them in a really big way a year or so ago and they haven’t really made that much of a difference. As I said, I suspect, all I can say, is they are overrated.

Q: What was he like when you worked with him, Christopher Steele? 

Scarlett: I’m not going to comment.

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