Trump ordered to pay legal fees to Christopher Steele company after UK lawsuit tossed out

Former President Donald Trump was ordered to pay legal fees to ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s company in his lawsuit over the Steele dossier that was tossed out of U.K. court last month. 

The London judge who dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against Orbis Business Intelligence ordered the former president to pay legal fees of 300,000 pounds ($382,000), per court documents released on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. 

Trump’s attorney had argued that the 2016 dossier published by Buzzfeed "contained shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump" and caused the former president to suffer "personal and reputational damage and distress," according to the news wire. 

Trump denied all claims in the dossier. 

Orbis asked the lawsuit to be dismissed because the dossier was never meant to be published.  

The judge agreed and said that Trump had "chosen to allow many years to elapse -– without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction -– since he was first made aware of the dossier" in 2017. 

U.K. Judge Karen Steyn issued an order on the legal fees several days after her Feb. 1 ruling on Trump’s case. 

Orbis said it had incurred 634,000 pounds ($809,000) of legal fees, which Steyn cut by more than half because the hearing had only lasted one day.