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LONDON – Donald Trump’s legal battles crossed the Atlantic on Monday with the start of a hearing into a former MI6 officer’s intelligence advice that Trump said caused him “personal harm and reputational harm and distress.”
The 45th president is suing Christopher Steele, a former British spy, and his consulting firm Orbis Business Intelligence over alleged data protection violations following the leak of an explosive dossier alleging that Russia had compromising material on Trump.
Steele was the author of the so-called Steele Dossier, which made extravagant claims about contacts between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian officials and said that Trump had engaged in “perverted sexual acts” monitored by Russian security services. Many of the allegations were never proven.
Trump Trials: Hear Them
Trump had previously dismissed the dossier as “fake news” and called Steele a “failed spy.”
Hugh Tomlinson, a lawyer for Trump, said in a London court on Monday that Trump wanted to testify before the London court to refute “scandalous” claims – including claims that Trump attended “sex parties” in St. Petersburg.
In papers filed with London’s High Court, Trump denies all allegations contained in the report and is seeking unspecified compensation for inflicting “personal and reputational harm and suffering.”
Trump’s lawyers said in their filing that he was “forced to explain to his family, friends and colleagues that the embarrassing allegations about his personal life were untrue. This was extremely distressing for the plaintiff.”
Lawyers at Orbis, a London-based firm founded by former British intelligence officers, are seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that there is no real prospect of success.
Steele is a former British spy who once headed the agency’s Russia division. He wrote the report for a private investigation firm commissioned by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The dossier was leaked to BuzzFeed, which published it in early 2017. After Steele was exposed as the person who compiled the report, he briefly went into hiding.
This is not the first time that Steele and Orbis have been sued in British courts over the dossier.
In 2020, the UK Supreme Court dismissed a libel lawsuit brought by Russian citizen and businessman Aleksei Gubarev. A judge ruled that while the references in the report were defamatory and damaged Gubarev’s reputation, Steele could not be held responsible for making the report public.
In another case, Orbis was ordered to pay Russian oligarchs Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman $22,000 each after they filed a lawsuit alleging that the dossier contained inaccurate personal information about them that was not complied with data protection laws. The dossier alleged that they had a shady relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The judge ruled that the claims were inaccurate or misleading. The judge also dismissed four of the five specific complaints they filed.
Trump is fighting several cases in US federal and state courts. The hearing in London is scheduled to last two days. A decision is expected at a later date.