A Christopher Steele timeline with links. Will update periodically.
2006 – Steele holds a senior post at MI6’s Russia desk in London.
March 2009 – Orbis, Steele’s company, is formed with another former British spy, Christopher Burrows.
2009 – Steele and Jonathan Winer meet and become friends after Steele forms Orbis.
2009 – Steele meets and becomes friends with Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. Fusion and Orbis begin a professional partnership. “The Washington- and London-based firms worked for oligarchs litigating against other oligarchs.”
Late 2009 – Orbis is hired by England’s Football Association to investigate allegations of corruption by FIFA , international soccer’s governing body.
Summer of 2010 – Steele supplied the FBI’s Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Squad in Rome with information on corruption at FIFA (2nd Source). It is at this time Steele meets DOJ’s Bruce Ohr. Some reports state Steel has known Ohr since 2006.
2013 – Steele begins transmitting copies of his intelligence reports to the State Department through Jonathan Winer – “Over the next two years, I shared more than 100 of Steele’s reports with the Russia experts at the State Department.”
2014 – Steele’s reports begin to reach Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland – although this may have occurred in 2013. Second source:
Between 2014 and 2016, Steele authored more than 100 reports on Russia and Ukraine. These were written for a private client but shared widely within the US state department, and sent up to secretary of state John Kerry and assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, who was in charge of the US response to Putin’s annexation of Crimea and covert invasion of eastern Ukraine.
Who is the private client Steele writes these reports for – Oleg Deripaska, Fusion GPS, Natalia Veselnitskaya, Bill Browder?
Early Spring 2016 – Simpson approaches Steele to begin work with Fusion GPS on behalf of DNC. Steele begins to scrutinize Paul Manafort. A Vanity Fair article will say the first call from Simpson occurred in June 2016. Note: Simpson already knew Manafort’s background (See Lee Smith’s – Tablet Mag article).
April 2016 – Steele begins to investigate Trump. Steele is paid by Fusion GPS who has been hired by the DNC & Clinton Campaign through Perkins Coie. Steele cannot visit Russia. All but one of Steele’s Russian contact are third-parties. “Only one of Steele’s sources on Trump knew of Steele.”
June 20, 2016 – Steele files first report contained in Dossier. He sends it to Fusion GPS via enciphered mail. 16 Memos would follow between July 19 and December 13 2016. Steele shares final December Memo with McCain via Simpson.
June 2016 – Steele meets in Rome with FBI Agent from Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Squad with whom Steele had worked on FIFA Scandal. Luke Harding, who knows Steele personally, says this meeting happened in June 2016. A Vanity Fair article states this meeting happened “by early August 2016”.
Summer of 2016 – Steele tells Winer he had learned of disturbing information regarding possible ties between Donald Trump, his campaign and senior Russian officials.
July 5, 2016 – Steele meets with FBI Agent Michael Gaeta at Steele’s home in London. Steele gives Gaeta a copy of his Dossier. Per Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, the State Department received a summary of Steele’s Dossier in July 2016. Nuland, who had known Steel since at least 2014 through Jonathan Winer, gave permission for Gaeta to meet with Steele.
July 19, 2016 – Steele Memo stating Carter Page met with met with Rosneft chief Igor Sechin and senior Kremlin official Igor Diveykin during Moscow trip.
Late July 2016 – Undated Steele Memo alleges “a well developed conspiracy of cooperation” between Trump associates and the Kremlin…recent release of internal DNC emails by WikiLeaks was undertaken in exchange for Trump sidelining Ukraine as a campaign issue.”
July 26, 2016 – Steele Memo describing extensive Russian government hacking operation.
July 30, 2016 – Steele Memo alleges eight-year Russian effort to cultivate Trump. Says Kremlin worried of political fallout from DNC email hack.
August 5, 2016 – Steel Memo notes growing backlash in Kremlin to DNC Email hack and Trump support operation. Identified Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as a key figure in the DNC hack.
August 10 2016 – Steele Memo claims Putin is generally satisfied with anti-Clinton efforts to date. Notes Kremlin support for General Flynn and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein.
August 10 2016 – Separate Steele Memo says DNC email leaks aimed at switching Sanders voters to Trump.
August 2016 – After a month or more of no contact, the FBI asks Steele for all information in his possession. The FBI asks Steele to explain how the material had been gathered and to identify his sources. Note: the FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation began on July 31, 2016.
August 22, 2016 – Steele Memo claims payments to Manafort from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
September 2016 – Steele and Winer meet in Washington and “discuss the information now known as the “dossier”. Winer prepares a two-page summary of the Dossier and shares it with Nuland. Strangely, both Nuland and Steele apparently fail to inform Winer of Nuland’s earlier approval for Gaeta/Steele meeting or Nuland’s receipt of Dossier in July 2016.
September 14, 2016 – Three Steele Memos. Russia is considering releasing more Clinton emails after Duma elections in late September. A close relationship between the leadership of Alfa Bank and Putin is alleged. Alleges Trump has paid bribes for dealings in Russia.
Early Fall 2016 (probably pre-FBI 10/3 Rome meeting) – Steele and Burrows (Orbis Partner) meet with Sir Richard Dearlove at the Garrick Club. Dearlove “advised Steele and Burrows to work discreetly with a top British government official to pass along information to the FBI. At the time of the meeting, Dearlove said he did not know whether Steele had approached the FBI.”
Mid-September 2016 – The FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigative Team obtains Steele’s Dossier for first time per Adam Schiff Memo.
Late September 2016 – “Steele had a series of off-the-record meetings with a small number of US journalists. They included the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo! News, the New Yorker and CNN. In mid-October he visited New York and met with reporters again.”
Late September 2016 – Steele and Simpson meet with the Washington Post for two hours. The Post agreed to keep the meeting confidential – along with a subsequent October 2016 meeting – but would report both on February 6 2018.
September 2016 – Steele meets with Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News leading to Isikoff’s September 23, 2016 article on Carter Page.
Late September – Winer is shown copy of Cody Shearer Memo by Sidney Blumenthal. Winer shares a copy of Shearer’s Memo with Steele. Steele will later share Shearer’s Memo with the FBI.
Fall 2016 – A Perkins Coie meeting with Steele and Simpson is held where Steels’ contact with reporters is discussed.
October 3, 2016 – Steele meets in Rome with FBI Eurasian Joint Organized Crime Squad Team. Steele is asked to “explain how he had compiled his reports, and to give background on his sources. [Steele is also asked] to send future copies. It is probable the meeting is comprised of FBI Agents from the Eurasian Squad along with FBI Agents from the Counterintelligence Investigation.
A little more than a month before Donald Trump was elected president, Christopher Steele had the undivided attention of the FBI. He was now being summoned to Rome, where he spent hours in a discreet location telling four American officials — some of whom had flown in from the United States — about his findings.
The FBI, which had agreed to fund his trip to Rome, never reimbursed his expenses, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mid October 2016 – Steele meets with reporters again.
October 2016 – Steel meets for second time with Washington Post. According to the Post, Steele appeared “visibly agitated.”
October 2016 – Steele shares Cody Shearer’s Memo with the FBI. Steele noted the following. “We have no means of verifying the sources or the information but note some of their own is remarkably similar to our own, albeit from a completely different sourcing chain.”
October 12, 2016 – Steele Memo alleging Russia having “buyer’s remorse” with leaked Clinton emails, worried they are not having enough effect.
October 18, 2016 – Steele Memo claims confirmation of Page July Sechin meeting. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen is highlighted.
October 19, 2016 – Steele Memo alleges Michael Cohen had been assigned task of cleaning up Manafort/Page issues from the Trump side.
October 20, 2016 – Steele Memo erroneously highlights a Cohen meeting with Kremlin officials in EU in August 2016. The meeting will later be identified as occurring in Prague.
Late October 2016 – Steel meets with David Corn of Mother Jones via Skype leading to Corn’s October 31, 2016 article. A Vanity Fair article says Steele and Corn met in early October.
Late October 2016 – Steele’s relationship with FBI is severed after Steel meets with Corn. The FBI has already obtained their October 21, 2016 Carter Page FISA Warrant. Before and after Steele’s termination by the FBI, Steele maintains contact with DOJ’s Bruce Ohr.
Late October-Early November 2016 (pre Trump’s Election win) – Steel and Sir Andrew Wood, the UK’s former Ambassador to Russia, have first meeting regarding the Dossier. Steele approaches Sir Andrew Wood before the election:
Wood was a friend of Steele’s and an Orbis associate. Before the election, Steele had gone to Wood and shown him the dossier. He wanted the ambassador’s advice. What should he do, or not do, with it? Wood: “I took it seriously. The right sort of people’ needed to be told.”
This first meeting is difficult to pinpoint. It’s possible it happened in mid-September 2016 prior to Steele’s Rome FBI meeting. Wood and Steele meet again in mid-November 2016.
Early November 2016 – David Corn meets with Simpson and Julian Borger of the Guardian. Corn tells Borger what he knows regarding the Dossier.
Early November 2016 – Simpson meets with BBC’s Paul Wood (not to be confused with Sir Andrew Wood) and gives Wood a redacted copy of the Steele Dossier.
Early November 2016 (post Trump’s Election win) – Steele provided a full review of his findings for a senior British official. Steele had told the FBI in Rome he would take this step in the event of a Trump victory.
Mid-November 2016 – Steel and Wood meet for a second time. Sir Andrew Wood approaches Steele after the election “to discuss whether they needed to take further steps to ensure the U.S. government was aware of his information.”
November 18-20 2016 – Wood tells John McCain of the Steele Dossier at the Halifax International Security Forum. McCain sends David Kramer to meet with Steele in London.
November 28, 2016 – David Kramer meets with Steele in London ten days after the Halifax Conference McCain/Wood meeting per McCain’s instructions. Kramer returns to Washington.
December 13, 2016 – Steele writes his final Dossier Memo. Asserts a Michael Cohen August meeting occurred in Prague. Cohen has never been to Prague.
Mid-December 2016 – Simpson shares Dossier with McCain along with final December Steele Memo. Harding’s article notes McCain/Comey meeting on December 8, 2016. Steele’s final Memo is dated December 13, 2016. Possible confusion on dates by Luke Harding – or Steele finalized December Memo after copy was given to McCain.
December 2016 – Steele meets with Guardian reporter Luke Harding in London.
January 10, 2017 – Buzzfeed publishes Steele Dossier.
January 10, 2017 – Per John Solomon article an email is sent by FBI Agent Peter Strzok to FBI executives: “Our internal system is blocking the site. I have the PDF via iPhone but it’s 25.6MB. Comparing now. The set is only identical to what McCain had. (it has differences from what was given to us by Corn and Simpson.)” The implication is the FBI had multiple versions of Steele Dossier.
January 10, 2017 – BBC correspondent says “He (Steele) was compiling this report on behalf of initially Trump’s opponent Jeb Bush.” The BBC subsequently said on January 11, 2016 that its correspondent misspoke.
January 12, 2017 – Steele goes into hiding after being identified by the Wall Street Journal.
Early 2017 – Steele (& Fusion) may have gone to work for Daniel Jones and Penn Quarter Group post election. Adam Waldman, a lobbyist for Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska, texted Senator Mark Warner that “Chris Steele asked me to call you” on March 16, 2017.
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