UK Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit Over Discredited Steele Dossier

The salacious claims in the dossier, which was leaked to the media, became part of the ‘Russian collusion’ narrative used against former President Donald Trump.

Christopher Steele, former British intelligence officer. in London, UK, on March 7, 2017. Victoria Jones/PA via AP

A judge in London on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump over an infamous research dossier authored by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which played a key role in the FBI’s probe into debunked allegations of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to swing the 2016 election.

Judge Karen Steyn said on Feb. 1 that the lawsuit that President Trump filed in October against Orbis Business Intelligence, which was founded by Mr. Steele, should be dismissed.

“There are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial,” she said, per The Associated Press.

President Trump sued Orbis Business Intelligence, seeking damages from the firm for allegedly violating British data protection laws in connection with the publication of the report authored by Mr. Steele, who was paid by Democrats to compile research that contained various salacious claims.

Hugh Tomlinson, the former president’s attorney, argued before the court in October that the dossier “contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump,” including false allegations that he paid Russian officials to boost his economic interests.

Mr. Tomlinson also argued before the judge that the personal data linked to President Trump in Mr. Steele’s report—dubbed the Steele Dossier—is “egregiously inaccurate.”

‘False and Defamatory’

President Trump said in a written witness statement that the claims in the Steele Dossier, which included allegations of engaging in sex parties in Moscow that Russian operatives could use for blackmail, were “wholly untrue.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told news outlets in a statement that the former president’s fight to show that the contents of Mr. Steele’s dossier are false and defamatory would continue.

“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,’” Mr. Cheung said in the statement, which President Trump shared in a post on Truth Social.

“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,” Mr. Cheung added.

Attorneys for Orbis have argued that the lawsuit should be thrown out because the dossier was never meant to be made public and was published by BuzzFeed without Mr. Steele’s permission.

They also argued that the claim was filed too late. The judge sided with this view, concluding that President Trump chose to allow many years to elapse without taking legal action to vindicate his reputation since the dossier was released in 2017.

Orbis did not respond to a request for comment.

Lawsuit Over Russiagate Claims

In 2022, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by President Trump against Mr. Steele, former top FBI officials, and his 2016 Democrat rival Hillary Clinton, in which the former president alleged they helped concoct the so-called Russiagate investigation that cast a pall over much of his presidency.

President Trump’s lawsuit in Florida alleged that the 31 defendants were involved in creating and promoting the Steele Dossier and that such acts amounted to crimes including conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice.

But U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said that President Trump’s lawsuit “does not establish that Plaintiff is entitled to any relief” and that the claims presented in it “are not warranted under existing law.”

Later, Mr. Middlebrooks imposed over $900,000 in sanctions on President Trump and his legal team in the unsuccessful lawsuit.

Information from the Steele Dossier formed part of the material that the FBI under the Obama administration used to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to spy on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 16, 2018. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

This surveillance, in turn, formed part of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into President Trump’s 2016 election campaign and alleged Russian collusion.

In compiling the dossier, Mr. Steele was hired by opposition research firm Fusion GPS and funded by Ms. Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Mr. Steele used second- and third-hand sources with ties to the Kremlin in putting together his report.

Even though the claims in the dossier were unverified and Mr. Steele’s prior remarks suggested an anti-Trump bias, the FBI and Department of Justice signed off on the FISA warrants.

The salacious claims in the dossier, which was leaked to the media, became part of the “Russian collusion” narrative that President Trump and others have dismissed as a ploy meant to attack and discredit him and undermine his administration.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the “Russiagate” claims failed to verify any of the 100-plus key allegations in Mr. Steele’s discredited dossier.