Former US President Donald Trump has been ordered to pay a six-figure legal bill to a company founded by a former British spy whom he unsuccessfully sued for making what his lawyer called false statements shocking and scandalous which damaged his reputation.
A London judge, who threw out the case against Orbis Business Intelligence last month, saying it was doomed to fail, ordered Trump to pay legal costs of 300,000 pounds ($382,000), documents show judicial published Thursday.
Orbis was founded by Christopher Steele, who formerly headed the Russian office of the British secret intelligence service, also known as MI6.
The British court case is one of the few in which Trump, who is almost certain to win the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, was not charged as he faces enormous legal problems at home.
Trump is charged in four criminal cases and faces a civil suit in U.S. courts. He then lost a defamation trial in which a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and was ordered to pay $355 million after a fraud verdict against his companies.
In England, he went on the offensive and took Orbis to court.
Steele was paid by Democrats for research that included salacious allegations that Russians could potentially use to blackmail Trump. The so-called Steele dossier, assembled in 2016, created a political storm just before Trump’s inauguration with rumors and uncorroborated allegations that have since been largely discredited.
Trump sued the company, claiming the filing was false and that Orbis had violated British data protection laws.
Attorney Hugh Tomlinson said at a hearing in October that the former president suffered personal and reputational damage and suffered from allegations in the filing that he participated in sex parties in St. Petersburg and frequented sex workers in Moscow.
Tomlinson said the dossier contained shocking and outrageous allegations about President Trump’s personal conduct and included allegations that he paid bribes to Russian officials to advance his business interests.
Orbis said the lawsuit should be dismissed because the report was never intended to be made public and was published by BuzzFeed without permission from Steele or Orbis. He also said the complaint was filed too late.
Judge Karen Steyn, who sided with Orbis in her Feb. 1 ruling, issued an order days later on legal costs.
She reduced the amount of legal fees. Orbis said it incurred 634,000 pounds ($809,000) more than 50%, as she said it was high given there had only been a one-day hearing.
In 2022, a US federal judge in Florida dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump against Steele, his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting his claims that they helped concoct the investigation into the Russia which overshadowed much of his administration.
