Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer, has broken his silence to defend his Trump-Russia dossier and criticise the Mueller report as "too narrow."
In a rare public speaking appearance Mr Steele appeared at a "members only" event at the Oxford Union.
Mr Steele, who used to head the Russia desk at MI6, dismissed allegations that he was politically biased, saying he was an opponent of President Putin," who was a "bully," according to a Daily Beast reporter who was present.
The Oxford Union itself published some of Mr Steele's remarks on Twitter.
In those comments Mr Steele said: "I stand by the integrity of our work, our sources and what we did.
"Trump himself doesnt like intelligence because its ground truth is inconvenient for him.
"The reality check is that Russia is a hostile state as it is run at the moment, it is out to destabilise the West and it is nefarious in the way it goes about its business."
The Oxford Union also released photographs of Mr Steele speaking while seated next to a moderator.
According to The Daily Beast, Mr Steele said the Mueller report into allegations of collusion between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia had been "too narrow" and that "drilling down into financial networks and leverage" was the way Russian influence works."
He reportedly said: "There were many things about the report that were goodbut other (aspects) that were not so good."
Mr Steele reportedly said he had been interviewed by Mr Mueller's team for two days but was "surprised that very little of what I had discussed with them appeared in the final report."
He also reportedly said it "wasn't great" that "a number of witnesses, including for instance, Donald Trump Jr" had not been interviewed.
John Durham, a US prosecutor, has been appointed by Bill Barr, Mr Trump's attorney general, to carry out a criminal inquiry into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation, which led to the Mueller report.
But Mr Steele said he and his private investigation company had already "done our duty" by cooperating with a previous inquiry by the US justice department's inspector general, according to The Daily Beast.
He was quoted as telling Oxford students: "As far as Im concerned, weve said everything we have to say on the matter."
