Donald Trump is failing to comply with a British High Court order to pay £300,000 in legal costs to the former spy who compiled a salacious dossier alleging Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
Sky News can reveal Triumph has not complied with the costs order and has so far ignored a formal offer to settle with Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled the infamous document.
Trump was ordered to pay costs in February, after the High Court dismissed his attempt to sue Mr. Steele’s company Orbis Business Intelligence.
The former president claimed that the report, which included unfounded allegations of bribery and that he used sex workers during a trip to Moscow, contained inaccuracies and violated his rights under the Data Protection Law.
Judge Steyn made no judgment on the allegations, but ruled that the claim was invalid because it was filed after the six-year statute of limitations period. Trump was also later denied permission to appeal.
By order of the judge, Trump paid £10,000 to the court as security against costs before the hearing, which was transferred to Steele in February.
In March, Orbis made a formal offer to settle using the civil court’s Part 36 procedure, but Trump’s lawyers have not responded.
“The fact is that we were awarded an initial costs order of £300,000 in February, which was upheld when his right to appeal was refused at the end of March. That is why he has been failing to comply with that order for two months,” Mr Steele said. . he told Sky News.
“Cost is the key issue in all litigation, and particularly in what we call lawfare, which we believe it is. It is an attempt to get back at us or to keep us quiet,” he said.
Christopher Steele to leave court in February
Steele, former head of MI6’s Russia bureau, was commissioned to produce the document by Trump’s political opponents, including Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Party.
He compiled what he says was a “running commentary” on Trump’s Russian views and the election campaign, drawn from multiple intelligence sources.
Much of the information in the dossier was unverified and Steele says it was never intended for release.
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After the election, a conservative politician with whom it had been shared leaked it to the media. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.
“We stand behind the sources we handled, the work we did and the way we handled it,” Steele said. “It is important to emphasize that it was not intended to be published. It was leaked by an American Republican to whom we had entrusted it without our permission or our knowledge, and as a result we have been involved in litigation ever since.”
The revelation that Trump is flouting a UK court order comes after he became the first US president to be convicted of a serious crime. He was found guilty of charges related to hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels last week.
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He is appealing that verdict and faces three other live legal proceedings in the United States in the run-up to the November election.
If elected, it would increase the possibility that he would return to the United Kingdom as president, defying a British court.
Steele says he has no means to recover his costs from British assets owned by Trump, because the golf courses that bear his name in Scotland are held in trust structures.
If Trump does not reach a deal, Steele’s only option would be to seek payment in the United States, incurring additional costs.
“We are talking perhaps about the next president of the United States, who is running for office and claims to love and respect the United Kingdom, and in fact is treating our legal system with contempt,” he said.
“I think he’s trying to postpone a lot of these legal cases, these fines and these costs until after what he thinks will be his re-election in November, in which case he’ll just tell us all to go and jump, basically.”
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Trump’s press secretary and his private office did not respond to Sky News’ request for comment.
Following the initial sentencing, a spokesman for the former president told the BBC that he would “continue to fight for the truth and against falsehoods such as those promulgated by Steele and his henchmen.”
“The High Court in London has determined that there was not even an attempt by Christopher Steele, or his group, to justify or attempt to prove, what they absolutely cannot, their false and defamatory allegations in the ‘false dossier'” , he added.
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