Donald Trump 'breaches order' to pay £300K in legal costs from UK Court

Donald Trump has failed to comply with a UK High Court cost order to pay £300K in legal fees and has also ignored a formal offer to settle with Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent who compiled a dossier alleging Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

This puts the former US President in breach of the British High Court after the High Court threw out his attempt to sue Mr Steele's company Orbis Business Intelligence in February. In March, Orbis made a formal offer to settle but Trump's lawyers have not responded for months.

Mr Steele, a former head of MI6's Russia desk, was commissioned during the 2016 election campaign to produce the document by Mr Trump's political opponents including Hillary Clinton's Democratic Party.

The ex-MI6 officer claims that the breach raises the prospect of a re-elected Mr Trump potentially visiting the UK as US President after refusing to pay up and "treating our legal system with contempt". He added that Mr Trump should face "enforcement" if he does visit the UK again.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Steele said: "The fact is we were awarded a £300,000 initial cost order in February, which was confirmed when his right of appeal was turned down at the end of March. And so he's been in breach of that order for two months now.

"Cost is the key issue in all litigation, and particularly in what we call lawfare, which we think this is. It is an attempt to take vengeance against us or to keep us quiet.

"We're talking about perhaps the next president of the US here, who is running for office and claims to love and respect the UK, and in fact is treating our legal system with contempt.

"I think he's trying to put off a lot of these legal cases and these fines and these costs until after what he thinks will be his re-election in November, in which case he will just tell us all to go and jump, basically."

Mr Steele also posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, earlier today, saying: "Trump, who claims to respect the UK, has now been in breach of this order for two months and faces enforcement if he travels here again."

The former president claimed the Steele report, which included unsubstantiated allegations of bribery and lurid claims that he used sex workers while on a trip to Moscow, contained multiple inaccuracies and breached his rights under the Data Protection Act.

Much of the information in the dossier, drawn from multiple intelligence sources, was unverified and Mr Steele insists it was never intended for publication. The dossier was leaked shortly after Mr Trump won the 2016 vote.

In response, Mr Steele has defiantly said: "We stand by the sources we were running and the work we did and the way we handled it."

The judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, did not make any judgment on the allegations but ruled the claim was invalid because it was filed after the six-year limitation period.

So far, Mr Trump has only paid £10,000 to the court as security against costs ahead of the hearing. This was transferred to Mr Steele in February.

The High Court breach is the latest legal headache for Mr Trump. Last week, he became the first US president to be convicted of a felony after he was found guilty of charges relating to hush money paid to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

He also faces three other live legal proceedings in the US in the build-up to November's election against Joe Biden.