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Donald Trump’s Steele dossier lawsuit dismissed by London court

Former US president’s attorney argued his client ‘suffered personal and reputational damage and distress’ through the dossier’s 2017 publication.

BY BETHANY DAWSON

Donald Trump’s legal challenge to a “shocking and scandalous” dossier prepped by a former British spy was thrown out by a High Court judge in London Thursday.

The U.S. former president had been attempting to sue Orbis Business Intelligence, founded by ex-Secret Intelligence Service agent Christopher Steele, on data protection grounds. The firm prepared the research dossier containing unsubstantiated allegations about Trump’s personal conduct, leading to a political storm just before he was inaugurated in 2017.

But on Thursday, High Court judge Karen Steyn rejected the case put forward by Trump’s lawyers.

The ruling says while the court did not “consider or determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of the memoranda,” the former U.S. president and current Republican front-runner’s damages claim fell outside of a six-year period of “limitations.”

Trump therefore was deemed to have “no reasonable grounds for bringing a claim for compensation or damages, and no real prospect of successfully obtaining such a remedy,” the Guardian reported.

Trump’s attorney Hugh Tomlinson previously argued that his client “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” through the release of the document, which was made public by BuzzFeed News in 2017.