Donald Trump Ordered To Pay Company He Sued
Former US President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay the legal costs of a company he sued over allegations of his involvement in "perverted" sex acts and bribes to Russian officials.
The High Court in London ruled that Mr Trump's claim for compensation against Orbis Business Intelligence, a consultancy founded by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, was "bound to fail" and dismissed it last month.
On Thursday, the court also ordered Mr Trump to pay Orbis's costs "of the entire claim", which the company estimated to be more than £600,000 ($830,000). The court said £300,000 ($415,000) should be paid by Mr Trump before the total costs are decided by a specialist judge.
Mr Trump has made no attempt to bring an appeal, the court said.
Orbis was the producer of the so-called Steele dossier, a collection of uncorroborated intelligence reports, denied by Mr Trump, that claimed the former president had been "compromised" by the Russian security service, the FSB.
The dossier, which was leaked to and published by BuzzFeed in 2017, included claims that Mr Trump had taken part in "sex parties" in St Petersburg and engaged in "golden showers" with prostitutes in Moscow.
Mr Trump brought a data protection claim over two memos in the dossier, which also alleged that he had "defiled" a bed previously used by former president Barack Obama and his wife.
At the hearing in October 2023, Hugh Tomlinson QC, for Mr Trump, described the allegations in the memos as "egregiously inaccurate" and "shocking and outrageous".
But Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed the claim, saying the "mere fact" that Orbis had held copies of the memos could not cause Mr Trump distress.
She also said Mr Trump had failed to show that Orbis had disclosed the memos to anyone other than Fusion GPS, a US research firm that commissioned the dossier on behalf of Mr Trump's political opponents.
Orbis welcomed the ruling last month, saying "we feel strongly that Mr Trump brought this claim in an attempt to exact revenge on Orbis and to chill free speech".
Mr Trump is all but certain to win the Republican nomination and fight a likely election against incumbent President Joe Biden as he bids to return to the White House. His last remaining rival Nikki Haley dropped out of the race on Wednesday.
