Former U.S. President Donald Trump is to pay a six-figure legal bill to a company created by a retired British spy. He had unsuccessfully sued the company for making allegedly “shocking and scandalous” false claims that harmed his reputation.
The order was given by a London judge, who threw out the case against Orbis Business Intelligence last month because according to him, it was bound to fail.
The judge ordered Trump to pay legal fees totaling 300,000 pounds ($382,000), according to court documents from Thursday. Christopher Steele founded Orbis, the company in question.
He once ran the Russia desk for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. The case was one of the few in which Trump was not a defendant, as he faces massive legal problems on his home soil.
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Trump is currently involved in four criminal cases and faces a civil complaint in U.S. courts. He took a loss on a subsequent defamation case that saw a jury find him guilty of sexual abuse. He also has to pay $355 million after a fraud verdict against his businesses.
In England, he went on the offensive by suing Orbis. But it looks like that may have been a mistake. Democrats reportedly paid Steele for research complete with salacious allegations Russians could potentially use to blackmail Trump. The “Steele dossier” came together in 2016, creating a political storm just before Trump’s inauguration.
There were lots of unsubstantiated rumors and uncorroborated allegations. But there has been a lot of discrediting done since. Trump sued the company, saying the dossier was phony and accusing Orbis of violating British data protection laws.
According to Attorney Hugh Tomlinson at an October hearing, Trump “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” over claims in the dossier that he took part in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg and consorted with sex workers in Moscow.
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Tomlinson said the dossier “contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump.” It included allegations that he bribed Russian officials to further his business interests.
Orbis dismissed the lawsuit because according to him, the report was never for public eyes. According to him, Buzzfeed published it without the permission of Steele or Orbis. He also said that the claim’s filing came too late.
Judge Karen Steyn, who took Orbis’s side in her February 1 ruling, issued an order several days later regarding the legal costs. She cut the amount of legal bills Orbis said it incurred — 634,000 pounds ($809,000) — by more than 50%, claiming it was high since there was only a one-day hearing.
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In 2022, a U.S. federal judge in Florida also dismissed a Trump lawsuit against Steele, Hillary Clinton, and former top FBI officials, rejecting his claims that they had something to do with the Russia investigation that overshadowed much of his administration.
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