Christopher Steele, a former British spy, claims that the Russian foreign ministry lobbied against Mitt Romney as US secretary of state Rick Bowmer/Associated PressThe Kremlin sought to block President Trump’s choice of secretary of state and pushed for a man friendlier to Russia, it was claimed last night. Mr Trump initially vetted Mitt Romney, the hawkish 2012 Republican presidential candidate, for the job but passed him over in favour of Rex Tillerson, an oil executive who has done business with Russia. The claim that President Putin’s foreign ministry had lobbied against Mr Romney appeared in a previously unknown memo written by the former British spy Christopher Steele. Mr Steele attracted controversy as the author of an unsubstantiated dossier stating that Russia held compromising information about Mr Trump. Mr Trump’s allies have sought to discredit the Briton, pointing out that he was hired by a political research firm that…

Source: The Times March 06, 2018 00:33 UTC