Former US President Donald Trump has not complied with a British High Court order to pay $380,000 in legal fees and has rejected a settlement offer from a former British spy who conducted research suggesting Russian interference in the 2016 US election, according to Sky News.
Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, authored the controversial ‘Steele dossier’ for the Democratic National Convention and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. This dossier, consisting of 16 reports over 35 pages, was leaked and published by BuzzFeed in 2017, alleging collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. It also included claims that prostitutes performed “golden showers” in front of Trump in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow.
Trump has dismissed these allegations as a “pile of garbage,” arguing that the dossier contains numerous inaccuracies and infringes on his rights under the Data Protection Act.
Earlier this year, Trump sued Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, in the UK, but the case was dismissed for being filed after the six-year limitation period. Consequently, Trump was ordered to pay £300,000 ($380,000) in legal fees.
“Earlier this year, when he lost his English High Court case against us, the judge ordered Donald Trump to pay Orbis an initial £300k in costs. Trump, who claims to respect the UK, has now been in breach of this order for two months and faces enforcement if he travels here again,” Steele wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Speaking to Sky News, Steele emphasized, “Cost is the key issue in all litigation, and particularly in what we call lawfare, which we think this is. It is an attempt to take vengeance against us or to keep us quiet.” He added, “I think he’s trying to put off a lot of these legal cases and these fines and these costs until after what he thinks will be his reelection in November, in which case he will just tell us all to go and jump.”
Recently, Trump was also found guilty of charges related to a hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
