The British judiciary on Thursday rejected the lawsuit filed by former US President Donald Trump against former British spy Christopher Steele, whose controversial report on his supposed ties to Russia caused a political storm in 2017.
The Republican candidate for the 2024 US presidential elections had appealed to the Supreme Court in London on behalf of the Data Protection Act in relation to this document, which collected preliminary, unverified information, and referred in particular to an alleged video clip of a sexual nature.
The 77-year-old former president brought this action against the private intelligence company of the former British intelligence agent, Orbis Business Intelligence, and sought compensation for moral damages.
The British Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that “there are no compelling reasons” to justify a trial, because “whatever the grounds for assertion (…) the request for compensation or the payment of damages is doomed to failure.”
According to Judge Karen Stein, Donald Trump was unable “to formulate a viable appeal that has a real chance of success (…) and chose to allow so many years to pass,” which led him to say that the former president was essentially seeking to “defend his reputation” through this Action.
Commissioned by the Democratic camp during the 2016 US election campaign, Christopher Steele compiled raw, unverified intelligence linking Donald Trump to Russia.
Some of his findings fueled the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who, after two years in the matter, concluded that there was evidence of Russian interference in the election campaign but not of collusion with Donald Trump's team.
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