A new memoir by former British spy Christopher Steele, famous for his 2016 dossier on Donald Trump, reveals a shocking claim: Russia’s military intelligence plotted to kidnap Americans in Syria or Iraq just before the 2020 U.S. election. The plan, according to Steele, was designed to help Trump win by boosting his image in the final days before Election Day.
Steele’s book, “Unredacted: Russia, Trump, and the Fight for Democracy,” is hitting bookstores today. In it, Steele makes clear his opposition to Trump and says that the Russian government came up with a plan to create a dramatic crisis — what he calls an “October surprise” — that would swing the election in Trump’s favor.
Here’s the wild part: Steele claims that a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer shared details of this plan, which involved kidnapping Americans or taking hostages in the Middle East. The goal? To give Trump the chance to swoop in and “solve” the crisis in a way that would make him look like a hero.
There were two possible outcomes Russia was hoping for: either Trump would resolve the crisis himself, or there would be a joint military operation between Russia and the U.S., allowing Trump to showcase Russia as a strong ally. Both scenarios would make Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin seem like a strategic win for America, according to Steele.
The book even includes parts of a secret report from Steele’s private research firm, Orbis Business Intelligence. This report describes a series of meetings held by a small group of Russian intelligence officers (part of the GRU, Russia’s military spy agency) who were planning the kidnapping. They reportedly aimed to pull this off by October 20, 2020 — just in time for Trump to use it to his advantage before Election Day.
Steele, who believes in the reliability of his sources, describes the whole plot as “radical” and “extremely risky,” but also says it shows just how far Russia was willing to go to help Trump win re-election.
Now that Steele’s memoir is out, it adds another twist to the long-running controversy over Russia’s interference in U.S. elections — and raises new questions about the lengths foreign governments might go to influence American politics.
