British justice on Thursday rejected the prosecution brought by former US President Donald Trump against ex-British spy Christopher Steele, whose controversial report on his supposed links with Russia caused a political storm in 2017.
The candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 US presidential election had appealed to the High Court in London in the name of data protection law concerning this document, which compiled unverified raw information and notably mentioned an alleged video of a sexual nature .
The 77-year-old former president had brought this action against the private intelligence company of the former agent of the British intelligence services, Orbis Business Intelligence, and claimed compensation for moral damage.
“There are no convincing reasons” which would justify holding a trial, ruled the British High Court on Thursday, because “whatever the merits of the assertion (…) the request for ‘compensation or payment of damages is doomed to failure.’
According to Judge Karen Steyn, Donald Trump was not able to “formulate a viable appeal that would have a real chance of succeeding (…) and chose to let many years pass”, which made him say that the former president was mainly seeking to “defend his reputation” through this action.
Commissioned by the Democratic camp during the campaign for the 2016 American election, Christopher Steele compiled raw, unverified intelligence linking Donald Trump to Russia.
Some of his discoveries fueled the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller who, after two years on this matter, concluded that there was evidence of Russian interference in the electoral campaign but not of collusion with the Donald Trump’s team.
To watch on video