Jane Onyanga-Omara, and John Bacon

USA TODAY

LONDON — The former British spy believed to be the author of a report containing unverified, salacious allegations about President-elect Donald Trump has fled his home, U.K. media reported Thursday.

Christopher Steele, 52, left the property in Surrey, south of London, on Wednesday after realizing his name would soon become public, according to the Telegraph. Other media outlets published similar reports.

Steele is a former officer for MI6 — which provides the government with foreign intelligence — and is the co-founder of Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, a corporate intelligence consultancy based in London, according to British media.

The document, published online by BuzzFeed, alleges Russian operatives obtained potentially compromising personal and financial information about the president-elect. Moscow has denied having any "compromising materials" on Trump, who dismissed the reports as “fake news.”

Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to confirm that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told him the U.S. Intelligence Community had nothing to do with the dossier.

"James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated," Trump tweeted. "Made up, phony facts.Too bad!"

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Clapper actually fell short of calling the accounts fictitious, saying in a statement that the U.S. intelligence community has not made "any judgment that the information in this document is reliable."

The Wall Street Journaland the Telegraph were among news agencies reporting the dossier was produced initially at the behest of Republicans opposed to Trump and later for Democrats. The Journal noted that no presidential campaigns or super PACs reported payments to Orbis in Federal Election Commission filings.

The BBC said members of the intelligence community described Steele as "extremely, highly regarded." The broadcaster said its correspondent learned Steele is in hiding, adding that this week Steele asked a neighbor to look after his cats.

The BBC said its correspondent was shown the material in October and was told then that Steele was "in fear of his life" after having spoken out about potential Russian involvement in Trump's election.

Says the Telegraph: "For months, he had been playing a dangerous game; tipping off journalists about what he said he had discovered from his sources in Russia about Donald Trump’s alleged dealings with the Kremlin, as well as claims that the FSB (Russian security service) had hugely compromising information about Mr Trump’s activities during visits to the country."

Steele's firm, Orbis, says on its website it provides "senior decision–makers with strategic insight, intelligence and investigative services." Christopher Burrows, a co-director of Orbis, declined to indicate the whereabouts of Steele or when he might surface.

"I'm not going to make any comment at all about the dossier, I can't possibly comment," he told the Telegraph.

Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: David Jackson

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