Perhaps a post-Tory government will finally look at $300M in Unexplained Wealth as Trump will at some point might actually lose the easy grifts like the trumpists supporting his $50M in 2023 legal costs.
Judge Karen Steyn said she thought Trump’s real purpose for pursuing Orbis was not for damages but as a final attempt at rehabilitating his reputation after failing for years through other means. “In reality, the claimant is seeking court findings to vindicate his reputation in circumstances where has not been able to formulate any viable remedy which he would have a real prospect of obtaining, or which would itself be of any utility,” Steyn wrote. Orbis had argued Trump brought the claim merely to air “longstanding grievances” against the company and Steele.
On the last day of his presidency, Trump declassified testimony from Steele about the former president’s links to Russia. Steele, who is British, criticized the decision as “reckless” and in October claimed two Russian sources had not been heard from since.
“….there are “no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed” as Trump had “chosen to allow many years to elapse -– without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction.”
There is a six-year period of “limitations” that such damages need to be claimed within, Steyn reasoned, adding that the former president’s claim for damages “is bound to fail.”
Steyn, who said she did not consider or determine the veracity or accuracy of the dossier’s claims, noted that the “only other remedy” Trump sought—an order to erase, or restrict processing, of his data—was “pointless, and unnecessary,” as Orbis had already deleted its copies of the dossier and it is “freely available” online anyway.
In a summary of the ruling, the court said Trump had “no real prospect of obtaining any of the remedies he sought.”
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