It looks like at least one of the individuals responsible for concocting and perpetuating the Russia collusion hoax might be facing some consequences. Former President Donald Trump has filed a data protection claim in the United Kingdom against former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and his consulting firm.

The lawsuit stems from Steele’s involvement in the creation of the now-debunked “Steele Dossier,” which contained a series of false and unsubstantiated allegations about the former president and his supposed ties to the Russian government.

Former President Donald Trump is suing former MI6 officer Christopher Steele over his work on the infamous, discredited dossier that bears his name.

Trump, 77, is bringing a data protection claim in the United Kingdom against Steele, who formerly ran British intelligence’s Russia desk, and his consulting firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, attorney Tim Lowles said in a statement.

“Proceedings have been issued on behalf of President Donald J. Trump against Orbis Business Intelligence Limited. The claim relates to breaches of UK Data Protection law arising from the inaccurate processing of the President’s personal data by Orbis following the publication of the false ‘Steele Dossier,’ according to Lowles.

“The President’s claim seeks remedies including that the inaccurate data contained within the Steele Dossier be erased or rectified together with the payment of damages,” the statement added.

The dossier was publicized in 2017 to discredit Trump’s presidency by making it seem as if he won because he was colluding with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

The dossier, which was leaked to the website BuzzFeed in 2017, also alleged that Vladimir Putin “supported and directed” an operation to “cultivate” Trump as a presidential candidate for “at least five years”. Trump denied the claims.

Steele and Orbis Business Intelligence were previously sued for libel by Russian national Aleksej Gubarev over the publication of the dossier, claiming they were legally responsible for BuzzFeed publishing the dossier. However, in a judgment in October 2020, Mr Justice Warby dismissed the claim.

The dossier contained a series of salacious accusations, including a story that Trump had hired prostitutes to urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel room in which former President Barack Obama previously stayed. But the document was more than a trove of lurid false tales intended to embarrass Trump.

Later, the FBI used the dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign. The agents investigating the former president used the document -- even though it had already been debunked and discredited. Indeed, former deputy director Andrew McCabe explained that he would never have approved the warrant if he had known about the dossier’s numerous inaccuracies.

Even further, Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the dossier, had been charged with making false statements to the Bureau. He was later acquitted. Since the dossier debacle, Steele has mostly flown under the radar.

As the legal battle plays out in the United Kingdom's courts, it remains to be seen how the case will affect the broader conversation about intelligence and the weaponizing of federal agencies against political opponents. There is a chance that, even with the slew of indictments against Trump, this case will still attract a substantial level of attention considering the fact that this document was used the launch one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.