LONDON – A judge in London on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former US president Donald Trump he accused the former British spy of making “shocking and scandalous claims” that were false and damaged his reputation.
Judge Karen Stein said Trump’s lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence should be dismissed. “There is no compelling reason to allow the lawsuit to go to court,” he said.
The decision comes as Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces legal challenges on both sides of the Atlantic.
Orbis Business Intelligence was founded in 2016 by Christopher Steele, who developed a dossier of rumors and unconfirmed claims that sparked a political storm just before Trump’s inauguration.
Trump called the dossier fake news and a political witch hunt. He sued Orbis for breaching UK data protection laws.
Steele, who once ran the Russia desk of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), was paid by Democrats to compile investigations that contained salacious allegations that the Russians could potentially use to blackmail Trump.
At a hearing in London in October, Trump’s lawyer said he was suing over two memos in the dossier that alleged the former president attended “sex parties” in St. Petersburg and had contact with sex workers in Moscow.
Lawyer Hugh Tomlinson said the former president had suffered “personal and reputational damage and suffering”.
Tomlinson said the dossier “contains shocking and scandalous allegations of President Trump’s personal conduct” and includes allegations that he paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests. Trump’s case “is that this personal information is patently inaccurate,” he said.
In a written witness statement, Trump said the allegations were “completely untrue,” despite Steele’s claims that he had never been denied.
Trump said he “did not engage in depraved sexual behavior, including hiring prostitutes in the presidential suite of a hotel in Moscow,” attended “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, or bribed or supplied Russian officials. “There is enough material to blackmail me.” He also said that he did not bribe, coerce or silence the witnesses.
Orbis said the lawsuit should be dismissed because the report should never have been made public and was released by BuzzFeed without the permission of Steele or Orbis. He also said that the lawsuit was filed too late.
The judge concluded in January 2017 that Trump had “chosen to allow many years to pass without attempting to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction because he first became aware of the dossier.”
“A claim for damages and/or damages … will fail,” Steyn said.
Orbis attorney Anthony White argued during last year’s hearing that Trump has a “deep and virulent animosity” toward Steele and the firm, as well as a “long history of repeatedly making frivolous, baseless and outrageous claims to irritate and harass adversaries.” and others he harbors a grudge against.’
USA A federal judge in Florida rejected Trump’s lawsuit in 2022 Steele has denied allegations against 2016 Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton and former FBI officials that they helped fabricate the Russia investigation that has overshadowed much of her administration.
Trump is currently waiting for the court’s decision civil fraud trial In New York, he alleged that he and company executives defrauded banks, insurers and others by overstating their assets and inflating their net worth to secure loans and make deals.
He turns away four separate criminal cases for allegedly mishandling classified documents, trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and paying hush money to a porn actress to cover up an affair.