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U.S. congressional investigators have also been eager to interview Christopher Steele about the dossier, the claims made in it and who helped pay for its production. | Victoria Jones/AP Judge denies Trump dossier author's bid to scuttle deposition

A federal judge in Miami has turned down a former British spy's attempt to avoid being questioned under oath about his role in producing a dossier of often salacious and unverified intelligence reports about President Donald Trump's activities in Russia.

Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev is seeking to force spy-turned-private-eye Christopher Steele to testify in a libel suit Gubarev filed against BuzzFeed over its publication of the dossier, which suggests Gubarev has corrupt ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gubarev got U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro to sign an order asking a British court to depose Steele in England, where he lives. Steele retained lawyers in the U.S. to try to head off the request, but their objection arrived a couple of hours after the judge had green-lighted the deposition.

In an order Tuesday, Ungaro rejected Steele's effort to enter the U.S. legal fight. She said that if he has objections to the deposition, a British judge can sort them out.

"Mr. Steele seeks to intervene on the grounds that his deposition is prohibited by British law. This Court presumes, however, that the Senior Master of the Court of Judicature, Queen’s Bench Division will limit the scope of the Request pursuant to British law," Ungaro wrote. "The Court, therefore, denies Mr. Steele’s request to intervene, trusting that his rights under British law will be protected by the British Court."

An attorney for Steele did not respond to a message seeking comment on the ruling.

Steele is not a defendant in the Florida case, but Gubarev is suing him in the United Kingdom over the distribution of the dossier.

U.S. congressional investigators have also been eager to interview Steele about the dossier, the claims made in it and who helped pay for its production.