Media reports say U.S. investigators have interviewed a former British spy who compiled a salacious dossier of allegations about purported contacts between U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.
Investigators working under U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is heading a probe into alleged Russian meddling in last year's presidential election and any possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign, met with Christopher Steele earlier this year, CNN reported on October 5.
The Associated Press and Reuters cited unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter as confirming the meeting.
Steele, a former senior operative for Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence agency, compiled the dossier initially for Trump's Republican rivals. Funding the report was later taken over by Democratic opponents.
The document contained uncorroborated information about alleged compromising materials Russia possessed about Trump, who has rejected it as "fake news."
BuzzFeed published the 35-page dossier, which had circulated among other media organizations earlier, in full in January. Several news organizations had decided not to report on the allegations in the document due to their inflammatory and unsubstantiated nature.
Mueller, a former director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, is leading a sweeping investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has repeatedly rejected suggestions of any collusion with Russia by himself or his associates.