Donald Trump is on the hook for legal fees after yet another loss in court, with a British judge ruling he must pony up $382,000 for his failed lawsuit over the so-called Steele dossier from 2016.
Trump had sued a company founded by the former British spy Christopher Steele on claims he made “shocking and scandalous” false claims about him and his alleged actions in Russia.
The dossier was explosive at the time of its release, arriving just before Trump’s presidential inauguration. It alleged he had received “golden showers” from Russian prostitutes, attended sex parties, and had been compromised by Russia’s intelligence security service.
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That dossier was largely discredited in following years, however, and Trump went on the offensive against Steele’s company in U.K. courts.
His plan backfired, however, with a London judge throwing out the lawsuit last month, saying it was “bound to fail.” She then ordered Trump to pay the pricey legal fees of 300,000 pounds ($382,000) to Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, the Associated Press reported, citing court records released Thursday.
Orbis was founded by Steele, after he retired from Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. Trump’s lawyers claimed Orbis had unlawfully processed Trump’s personal data and demanded the company dish out compensation for “serious distress and reputational damage”.
Orbis denied responsibility for the dossier’s publication, however, and High Court Justice Karen Steyn sided with the company.
Steyn said Trump now must pay Orbis’ costs “of the entire claim.”
It’s yet another blow for Trump, who faces more pressing legal battles back home. That includes a quartet of criminal indictments that are slated to go to trial in the coming months, as well as civil losses in court that have him on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Most notably, Trump was ordered to shell out $355 million after he lost a fraud verdict against his businesses last month. A previous lawsuit about the Steele dossier filed in a Florida federal court never gained traction in 2022, but Trump wasn’t ordered to pay up for that loss.
