President Trump’s legal defeats continue as judge dismisses document lawsuit

• A British judge has dismissed Mr Trump’s lawsuit over a 2016 “dirty dossier” compiled by a former spy.
• Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele has claimed that President Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia.
• President Trump has previously denied the allegations in documents, but they have rarely been verified.

Donald Trump’s legal troubles are only getting worse.

A judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Mr Trump, accusing a former British spy of making “scandalous claims” including attending sex parties and bribing officials in Russia.

In 2016, Democrats paid former MI6 official Christopher Steele to produce the now-infamous “dirty dossier” about Trump, according to the Associated Press. The document contained explosive and unverified claims about Trump’s 2017 presidential bid.

Steele then sent his findings to the FBI, the British National Security Adviser and an aide to a senior US senator.

The documents, published by BuzzFeed in January 2017, allege that President Trump’s campaign team colluded with Russia to hire sex workers to urinate on each other in Moscow hotel suites.

President Trump has said the document is a political witch hunt and wants to sue Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, for allegedly breaching British data protection laws.

“There is no compelling reason to allow the allegations to proceed to trial,” London Judge Karen Stein said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Judge Stein agreed with the defense that the case should be dismissed because Mr. Steele did not intend to publicize the incident when BuzzFeed published the article in 2017.

He added that the former president had allowed several years to pass “without making any effort to correct his reputation in this jurisdiction.”

Business Insider reported in 2019 that President Trump had previously dismissed the document as a “heap of garbage” and publicly accused the FBI of fabricating the allegations.

Trump’s lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, said the document, which he labeled as containing “shocking and scandalous allegations,” left Trump with “personal and reputational damage,” according to the Associated Press. I suffered pain,” he said.

The firing is significant — Trump has been battling a series of lawsuits and indictments since leaving office. He maintains a lead in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, but legal troubles mean he will spend this year in court and campaigning.

The former president faces 91 felonies in four criminal cases and is involved in two civil lawsuits.

Most recently, the judges awarded the award to E. Jean Carroll. $83.3 million in defamation damages She spoke out against Trump after he was convicted of sexual abuse in the 1990s. The jury agreed that Mr. Trump had slandered Mr. Carroll, a former Elle columnist, for lying about sexual abuse.

The blow to Trump’s legal team comes after The New York Times reported that he received $50 million in legal fees from supporters in 2023.

In a statement to Business Insider, Trump campaign spokesperson Stephen Chan said: “The High Court in London has judged that Christopher Steele and his group have not tried to justify false and defamatory claims, “The court found that the defendants did not even attempt to prove their claims.” “document”. ”

“The high court also found that there was a disposition of these false statements. President Trump’s legal team will evaluate the full verdict as we continue to seek truth and fight falsehoods.”

Representatives from Orbis Business Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.