A London judge dismissed former President Donald Trump’s privacy lawsuit against former British spy Christopher Steele on Thursday, where Trump accused Steele of making “false and scandalous claims” in a dossier.
British Judge Karen Steyn said there were “no compelling reasons” to let the lawsuit go to trial and that Trump had allowed many years to pass without legal action to “vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction” since he was made aware of the dossier’s existence in January of 2017.
The lawsuit, which was filed against Steele and his consultancy company Orbis Business Intelligence in October, focused on a 35-page dossier that included unverified allegations about Trump and the 2016 presidential election. The dossier was used by the FBI to get warrants in its investigation into Russia’s alleged links to the election.
Steyn admitted that she did not “consider or determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of the memoranda” when issuing her ruling, but said Trump’s claim for damages was “bound to fail.”
Orbis said it was “delighted” by the ruling, even though it believes the case should not have been filed. Orbis has claimed that the dossier was never supposed to be made public and that Buzzfeed had published the dossier without the firm’s permission.
“Mr Trump has already been criticized by U.S. courts for pursuing vexatious litigation against us,” the firm said in a statement. “We strongly believe Mr. Trump also brought this claim in an attempt to exact revenge against Orbis, and to chill free speech and legitimate investigations.”
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Trump’s campaign said it would continue “fighting for truth” against Steele and Orbis but did not indicate how it would do so.
“The high court in London has found that there was not even an attempt by Christopher Steele, or his group, to justify or try to prove, which they absolutely cannot, their false and defamatory allegations in the fake ‘dossier,’” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the Guardian. “The high court also found that there was processing, utilization, of those false statements. President Trump will continue to fight for the truth and against falsehoods such as ones promulgated by Steele and his cohorts.”
