\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained \u201cshocking and scandalous claims\u201d that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation.<\/p>\n
Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated.<\/p>\n
Trump is seeking damages from Orbis Business Intelligence for allegedly violating British data protection laws. Steele\u2019s company is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed during two days of hearings at London\u2019s High Court.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit comes as Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination while facing legal problems on the other side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawyers are currently fighting a civil fraud trial in New York alleging he and company executives deceived banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth to secure loans and make deals. He also faces four separate criminal cases for allegations including mishandling classified documents, trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and paying hush money to a porn actress to cover up an affair.<\/p>\n
His attorney noted in court Monday that Trump is a \u201ccontroversial figure\u201d who \u201cexpresses himself in strong language\u201d and has faced criticism from judges in the U.S. However, he said none of that is relevant in the current case.<\/p>\n
Trump is claiming he \u201csuffered personal and reputational damage and distress\u201d because his data protection rights were violated.<\/p>\n
Steele, who once ran the Russia desk for the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, was paid by Democrats to compile research that included salacious allegations that Russians could potentially blackmail Trump for activity with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. Trump said the dossier was fake news and a political witch hunt.<\/p>\n
Tomlinson said it \u201ccontained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump\u201d and included allegations he paid bribes to Russian officials to further his business interests. Trump\u2019s case \u201cis that this personal data is egregiously inaccurate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tomlinson said Trump plans to vindicate himself in court by providing evidence that the report\u2019s claims were false.<\/p>\n
Orbis wants the lawsuit thrown out because it said the report was never meant to be made public and was published by BuzzFeed without the permission of Steele or Orbis. It also said the claim was filed too late.<\/p>\n
Orbis attorney Antony White said Trump has a \u201cdeep and intense animus against\u201d Steele and the firm and a \u201ca long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump had called for Steele to be \u201cextradited, tried, and thrown into jail\u201d and has called him a \u201clowlife\u201d and \u201csleazebag\u201d involved in the \u201cRussian collusion hoax\u201d who produced \u201ca total phony con job\u201d dossier, White said in a court filing.<\/p>\n
In two previous High Court cases, a judge ruled Orbis and Steele were not legally liable for the consequences of the dossier\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON (AP) \u2014 A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained \u201cshocking and scandalous claims\u201d that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation. Trump has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-226403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}