Former US president Donald Trump will have to pay at least £300,000 ($382,000) in costs after losing a UK court action against a former spy who compiled a salacious dossier about him, according to a court order publicised Thursday.
Trump took legal action against Christopher Steele’s company Orbis Business Intelligence, but High Court judge Karen Steyn ruled last month that there were “no compelling reasons” to allow the claim to proceed to trial.
The data protection claim was “bound to fail” she wrote in her judgment.
Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.
The judge also threw out Trump’s claim for compensation, stating that he had “chosen to allow many years to elapse — without any attempt to vindicate his reputation” in the UK courts since the dossier came out.
In an order obtained by Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency, the judge said Trump will have to pay Orbis’s costs “of the entire claim”.
She ordered that £300,000 be paid now, before a specialist judge decides the final amount. Orbis says this should be more than £600,000.
Political firestorm
The so-called Steele dossier sparked a political firestorm when it was published just before his inauguration in January 2017.
It contained unverified and controversial information about Trump and Russia that the former Republican leader has repeatedly denied, including allegations of sexual misbehaviour.
It included claims that Trump had been “compromised” by the Russian FSB security service and that Russia had videotapes of Trump with prostitutes during a 2013 trip to Moscow.
It also alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin “supported and directed” an operation to “cultivate” Trump as a presidential candidate for “at least five years”.
Some of the allegations fuelled a probe by US special prosecutor Robert Mueller which concluded in 2019 that the Russian government had interfered with the 2016 election but found no evidence of collusion with Trump’s team.
Trump has repeatedly denounced the dossier, which was leaked to Buzzfeed, as “fake”. The New York Times has determined there was no corroborating evidence to support many of its claims.
Trump claimed in the High Court case that Orbis unlawfully processed his personal data, and sought unspecified compensation for “serious distress and reputational damage”.
The company argued it was not responsible for the dossier’s publication.
The dossier, produced before Trump’s 2016 election win against Hillary Clinton, was commissioned by Democratic Party consultants.
Trump sued Clinton, Democratic Party leaders and Steele in the US over the report in 2022.
Steele, 59, formerly ran the Russia desk of Britain’s overseas intelligence agency MI6.