Influencer Editorial Team
After becoming the first former or current president in the history of the United States to have been convicted in a criminal case, Donald Trump has failed to follow an order from the UK’s High Court to pay £300,000 ($380,000) in legal costs. Calling cost the most crucial factor in every litigation, he alleged that it is an attempt by Trump to exact “revenge against us or to keep us quiet.” (AFP) Calling cost the most crucial factor in every litigation, he alleged that it is an attempt by Trump to exact “revenge against us or to keep us quiet.” (AFP)
The GOP leader has also snubbed a formal offer to settle with Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer who compiled a dossier asserting Russian interference in the 2016 US poll. This puts the former US President in contempt of the British High Court, which dismissed his attempt to sue Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, in February. Orbis formally offered settlement in March; months later, Trump’s lawyers still have not responded.
During the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Trump’s political opponents, led by Hillary Clinton, hired Steele, an ex-chief of MI6’s Russia desk, to compile the report. As the former MI6 agent puts it, the crime makes it likelier that a reelected Trump will end up in Britain as President after “stiffing our bill collectors around town” and being “contemptuous of our legal system.” He continued to say that Trump has to face “enforcement” if he visits the UK.
Christopher Steele reveals why Trump has been breaking order. Speaking to Sky News, Steele said: “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.” “He’s been in contempt of that injunction for February and March,” he added. In describing calling cost the most critical factor in every litigation, he claimed it an effort to take “vengeance against us or to keep us quiet.”
“Here we have perhaps the next president of the US here, who is running for office and claims to love and respect the UK, and is treating our legal system with contempt,” he said. He also said the former US President has been trying to delay many of these legal challenges, fines, and costs until “after what he thinks will be his re-election in November, in which case he will just tell us all to jump.”
In a message to X, Steele posted: “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 US President has, as of now paid the court £10,000 as surety against legal fees ahead of the hearing. This was handed to Steele in February.
But Trump said the report, which also contained unsubstantiated charges of bribery and salacious claims that he employed sex workers while staying in Moscow, was riddled with errors and breached his rights under the Data Protection Act.
