A London High Court has ordered former U.S. President Donald Trump to pay $741,000 in legal costs following a defamation case he filed against Orbis Business Intelligence, the firm founded by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The case stemmed from a dossier written by Steele and published in January 2017, just before Trump’s inauguration. The document alleged that Trump had colluded with Russian intelligence to influence the 2016 presidential election and contained unverified and controversial claims about Trump’s personal conduct during a 2013 trip to Moscow. Trump had dismissed the claims as entirely false.

In 2022, Trump sued Orbis under the UK’s Data Protection Act, asserting that the company was responsible for the dossier’s contents. However, Orbis argued that Steele had written the document independently and that the firm had no role in its dissemination. The court had earlier indicated that the case lacked merit, and in February 2024, Justice Karen Steyn reaffirmed that the case was unlikely to succeed. In its final ruling, the High Court dismissed Trump’s claims and ordered him to cover the legal costs incurred by Orbis, totaling $741,000.