THE Donald Trump should pay at least £300,000 in legal costs in the company of a British ex-agent, against whom he had sued after the publication of a controversial report linking him to Russia.

Former spy Christopher Steele’s report on Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow caused a political firestorm in 2017. The former US president – ​​and re-candidate for the presidency – appealed to the High Court in London, citing the Privacy Act . Steele’s report contained raw, unverified information and also referred to a purported sex video.

Trump was targeting Steele’s private intelligence firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, and seeking damages for moral damages. But on February 1, the British judiciary rejected his appeal.

With today’s decision, which is cited by the British agency PA, the judge in charge of the case ruled that Trump should pay the legal costs of Orbis, a former agent of the British MI6, “for the entire appeal.” The company estimated the costs to be more than 600,000 pounds (703,670 euros) but the judge ordered Trump to pay only 300,000 until another, special court, determines the exact amount.

The report Steele commissioned for Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign said Russian President Vladimir Putin “supported and directed” a campaign to promote Trump’s candidacy “for at least five years.” Some of those allegations were the subject of an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who, after a two-year investigation into the case, concluded that there was evidence of Russian meddling in the election campaign, but not of collusion by the Trump team with Moscow. .

The former chairman admitted that Orbis was not responsible for the release of the report, which was released without the company’s knowledge, but he believed that she had “manipulated” the information contained in the document.