LONDON: Former US president Donald Trump will have to pay at least $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 on 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. 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.

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”.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024