‘The nature of these things is that it is hard to verify intelligence but what is in the report and could have been verified has been found not to stand-up to scrutiny and that is worrying.’ 

He highlighted the claim that the president-elect’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen had met secretly with representatives of the Russian leadership in late August or early September 2016 in the Czech capital Prague. 

However, Cohen insists he has never been to the Czech Republic and that on the date suggested for the clandestine rendezvous he was actually at a baseball game in the US with his son. 

‘If there are two such obvious mistakes are there others?,’ he asked. 

‘There is a difference between intelligence and evidence and that is crucial here. 

The one-ti me officer, who now works in the private sector, suggested the dossier had been compiled to include what was being alleged in Moscow by Mr Steele’s sources but they were unlikely to have ever provided ‘specific, emphatic evidence.’ 

He added : ‘It is light on sources because of the need to protect them but that will leave you open to allegations always that material could have been planted. 

‘With his experience, Chris Steele would have known this and is was his judgement the sources are trust-worthy and what they provided was worth passing on.’ Others have suggested the Kremlin had planted much of the material against Mr Trump and his associ ates, mixing false information with genuine material. 

Mr Trump points out that he was very much aware of the risk of being spied on in hotel rooms and was accompanied by trusted aides.

The intelligence officers agree such a ‘compromise’ with the purpose of ‘potential blackmail or political leverage’ is unlikely

A potential weakness, the former colleague, said was that his sources would in turn have had their own sources so by the time it reached Mr Steele is was ‘fourth or fifth hand’ and could have included rumour and misinformation.