London’s High Court rejected Donald Trump’s lawsuit on data protection against a British private investigation company on Thursday. The lawsuit was related to a dossier that alleged connections between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, had taken legal action against Orbis Business Intelligence due to claims made in a dossier authored by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and co-founder of Orbis.
Judge Karen Steyn, in a written ruling, stated that there were no significant grounds to proceed with the case to trial. This meant that the lawsuit against the former US president could not move forward, as reported by Reuters.
In an October affidavit, Trump mentioned that he initiated the lawsuit to challenge the accusations in the controversial Steele dossier, which was published by BuzzFeed in 2017. The dossier alleged that Trump had engaged in inappropriate activities in Russia. Trump’s legal team argued that the dossier was highly inaccurate and contained numerous false claims that were never verified. Orbis, on the other hand, contended that Trump’s lawsuit was merely an attempt to address his longstanding grievances against Steele and the company.
Currently facing multiple criminal charges in the US, Trump is entangled in various legal battles, with the London lawsuit being just one of them. The scheduled commencement date for Trump’s federal trial related to alleged obstruction in the 2020 election has been removed from the public calendar.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, initially set the trial date for March 4. Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges related to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the events leading up to the January 6 attack. Many anticipated that the trial would be delayed due to the ongoing deliberations at the D.C. Circuit, where the question of whether Trump can claim immunity from prosecution for actions taken during his presidency is being considered.
The timeline for the appeals court’s decision remains uncertain, despite arguments being heard on January 9. This development, first reported by The Washington Post, reveals that the federal court in Washington, D.C. has removed the March 4 trial date from its public calendar. This administrative action indicates that the trial will be postponed until the immunity appeal process is resolved.
“Donald Trump’s March 4 trial on election fraud charges has been dropped from the court calendar. In December, Judge Tanya Chutkan agreed to freeze the case while Trump appealed the indictment on presidential immunity grounds. Its removal from the court calendar signals that the case will likely not begin for several more months, pushing it closer to the presidential election in November. The Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals is now considering the case, and it will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court after that,” Newsweek reported.
