Former President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered a company founded by Christopher Steele to pay $382,000 in legal fees after losing a lawsuit over salacious allegations contained in a former British spy’s infamous dossier. commanded.
orbis business intelligence Claimed to have collected $809,00 in legal fees Judge Karen Stein in London, who was fighting Mr. Trump’s case, ruled that the figure was too high given that she threw out the case after a one-day hearing.
Last month, Stein dismissed the former president’s lawsuit against Orbis, saying there was “no compelling reason to allow this claim to proceed to trial.”
Trump’s lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, told a judge in an October 2023 hearing that “shocking and scandalous allegations” leveled in documents by the former MI6 agent’s office had made his client’s He said the damage to his reputation included allegations that Trump attended a “sex party.” and a “golden shower” with a Russian prostitute.
The document also contained allegations that President Trump had accepted bribes from Russian officials.
Mr. Trump’s lawsuit alleges that Orbis breached British data protection laws when it compiled the so-called Steele dossier, and that the unsubstantiated claims are “grossly inaccurate.”
Orbis was paid through intermediaries by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to dig dirt on President Trump ahead of the November 2016 election.
The findings of this document were first published by BuzzFeed News in January 2017.
Orbis successfully argued that Trump’s lawsuit should be dismissed because the documents’ findings were never intended to be published and published by BuzzFeed News without Steele or Orbis’ permission.
The company also said it filed the lawsuit too late.
A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump in 2022 against Mr. Steele, Mr. Clinton and former FBI officials over the Russia investigation hoax that has overshadowed much of the Trump administration. He rejected claims by a leading 2024 Republican candidate that he cooperated.
But Mr. Clinton and the DNC agreed to pay. Fine: $113,000 In 2022, he was charged by the Federal Election Commission with violating campaign finance laws by falsely reporting funds spent on commissioning documents.
