Donald Trump was ordered to pay a six-figure legal bill to a company founded by the former British spy behind an infamous report linking him to Russia.
The London judge who tossed out the former president's case against Orbis Business Intelligence last month ordered Trump to pay $382,000 worth in legal fees to the company started by Christopher Steele, who once ran the Russia desk for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, reported ABC News.
Trump had sued the company over a dossier assembled by Steele in 2016 that included salacious allegations that the former reality TV star was at risk of blackmail by the Kremlin. Judge Karen Steyn ruled on Feb. 1 that the suit was "bound to fail" and ordered him to repay the firm's attorney fees.
The former president's attorney Hugh Tomlinson argued that Trump had suffered "reputational damage and distress" over "scandalous claims" in the dossier saying he had attended "sex parties" in St. Petersburg and associated with sex workers in Moscow.
Orbis countered by arguing the report had never been intended for public release and was published by BuzzFeed without the permission of Steele or the company, and the company's lawyers also said the suit had been filed too late.
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The company had sought restitution for $809,000 in legal fees, but the judge cut that amount by more than half because she said the case had required only a single one-day hearing.
A U.S. federal judge rejected a similar complaint in 2022 against Steele, former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former FBI officials.
The former president has been ordered to pay nearly half a billion dollars in penalties after fraud, sexual abuse and defamation cases against him in New York, and he also faces four criminal prosecutions and additional civil trials.