Donald Trump fails to pay $400,000 legal bill over failed ‘Steele dossier’ lawsuit, UK court told

LONDON - US President Donald Trump has refused to pay £290,000 (S$480,000) in legal fees after his English lawsuit against a private investigations firm was dismissed, a London court heard on Jan 29.

Mr Trump brought a data protection lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence over allegations in a dossier written by its co-founder, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, but his claim was thrown out in February 2024. 

The so-called Steele dossier alleged ties between Mr Trump's 2016 election campaign and Russia, as well as other salacious allegations, all of which Mr Trump denied.

Lawyers representing Orbis said on Jan 29 that Mr Trump had been ordered to make a payment of £290,000 towards Orbis' legal fees, with further sums also likely to be due.

"No real reason has been given for the non-payment," said Orbis' lawyer, Mr Mark Friston. 

He said Mr Trump was now also claiming he had "sovereign immunity" from any enforcement action as a head of state, an argument he said was "completely hopeless" as it had been a private lawsuit.

Mr Trump's lawyer, Ms Jacqueline Perry, said the court was in a "slightly unusual position, with a slightly unusual client". 

"It's difficult to get instructions when your client is president of the free world and trying to turn everything upside down," she said. "This isn't high in his area of importance."

She said the president was "an innocent party in this" and was bringing a professional negligence claim against his former legal advisers for bringing his High Court lawsuit under the wrong statute. 

"That was the only reason the case was struck out," she said, adding he wanted the action against his former advisers settled before addressing Orbis' "eye-wateringly" high costs.

Judge Jason Rowley ruled that Mr Trump must pay the £290,000 within 28 days, or he would be prevented from addressing the court in April on a future argument about Orbis' legal fees.

Mr Trump's data protection lawsuit was dismissed, with Judge Karen Steyn ruling that "there are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed".

Mr Trump said in a witness statement for the hearing that he brought the case to prove claims in the so-called Steele dossier, published by the BuzzFeed website in 2017, that he engaged in "perverted sexual acts" in Russia, were false.

Many of the claims in the dossier were never substantiated and lawyers for Mr Trump said that the report was "egregiously inaccurate" and contained "numerous false, phoney or made-up allegations". REUTERS