{"id":107395,"date":"2025-01-31T17:59:57","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T01:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/31\/trump-blows-off-uk-pee-tape-judgment-im-king-george-now\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T17:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T01:59:57","slug":"trump-blows-off-uk-pee-tape-judgment-im-king-george-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/01\/31\/trump-blows-off-uk-pee-tape-judgment-im-king-george-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Blows Off UK Pee Tape Judgment: I\u2019m King George Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Does Chief Justice Roberts\u2019s jurisdiction extend to the UK? Asking for the sitting president, who appears to think SCOTUS\u2019s presidential crimes permission slip is good worldwide.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Judge Karen Steyn flushed<\/a> President Trump\u2019s libel suit<\/a> against former MI6 agent Chris Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence over the \u201cPee Dossier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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; and having chosen to allow many years to elapse \u2013 without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction \u2013 since he was first made aware of the Dossier (including the Memoranda) on 6 January 2017, and since he first knew the identity of the author on 11 January 2017,\u201d she wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And because the UK litigation is \u201closer pay,\u201d she \u201cconcluded that the Defendant should have summary judgment in respect of his claim for compensation\/damages and a compliance order, and consequently on the claim as a whole.\u201d Which meant that Trump was on the hook for \u00a3290,000 in legal fees to Steele and Orbis.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Trump has refused to pay. But he did come up with a somewhat surprising justification.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian<\/a>, Orbis\u2019s counsel Mark Friston told the court that Trump was asserting \u201csovereign immunity\u201d and claiming that any collection action would be \u201ccompletely hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

This would be a bizarre statement in an American court \u2014 even with this<\/em> Supreme Court, a sitting president is liable to a new civil claim, as well as to a suit to enforce a judgment entered before he returned to office. (Just ask E. Jean Carroll.) But perhaps Trump\u2019s assertion of l\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 is less a statement of law than a challenge. He thinks he\u2019s a sovereign, and what is some English judge gonna do about it, really?<\/em><\/p>\n

This has, however, left his lawyers in a bit of a sticky wicket. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get instructions when your client is president of the free world and trying to turn everything upside down,\u201d his attorney Jacqueline Perry told Judge Jason Rowley. \u201cThis isn\u2019t high in his area of importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She protested that her client was \u201can innocent party in this,\u201d sadly led astray by his former counsel, who bollixed the case and made a dog\u2019s breakfast of it. And so, she hoped that the court would withhold execution of the judgment until after the malpractice claim is sorted, at which point Trump would be prepared to enter into negotiations over Orbis\u2019s fee.<\/p>\n

Sadly, no.<\/em><\/p>\n

Judge Rowley informed Perry that, should her client fail to remit the \u00a3290,000 forthwith, he\u2019d forfeit the right to contest the fees at all. <\/p>\n

No doubt Chief Justice Roberts and his fellow conservative are inking up their quills to tell those wig-headed limeys where to stick it.<\/p>\n

Trump has refused to pay \u00a3290,000 in legal fees after case dismissed in UK, court told<\/a> [The Guardian]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Trump Blows Off UK Pee Tape Judgment: I\u2019m King George Now<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Does Chief Justice Roberts\u2019s jurisdiction extend to the UK? Asking for the sitting president, who appears to think SCOTUS\u2019s presidential crimes permission slip is good worldwide.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Judge Karen Steyn flushed<\/a> President Trump\u2019s libel suit<\/a> against former MI6 agent Chris Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence over the \u201cPee Dossier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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; and having chosen to allow many years to elapse \u2013 without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction \u2013 since he was first made aware of the Dossier (including the Memoranda) on 6 January 2017, and since he first knew the identity of the author on 11 January 2017,\u201d she wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And because the UK litigation is \u201closer pay,\u201d she \u201cconcluded that the Defendant should have summary judgment in respect of his claim for compensation\/damages and a compliance order, and consequently on the claim as a whole.\u201d Which meant that Trump was on the hook for \u00a3290,000 in legal fees to Steele and Orbis.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Trump has refused to pay. But he did come up with a somewhat surprising justification.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian<\/a>, Orbis\u2019s counsel Mark Friston told the court that Trump was asserting \u201csovereign immunity\u201d and claiming that any collection action would be \u201ccompletely hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

This would be a bizarre statement in an American court \u2014 even with this<\/em> Supreme Court, a sitting president is liable to a new civil claim, as well as to a suit to enforce a judgment entered before he returned to office. (Just ask E. Jean Carroll.) But perhaps Trump\u2019s assertion of l\u00e8se-majest\u00e9 is less a statement of law than a challenge. He thinks he\u2019s a sovereign, and what is some English judge gonna do about it, really?<\/em><\/p>\n

This has, however, left his lawyers in a bit of a sticky wicket. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get instructions when your client is president of the free world and trying to turn everything upside down,\u201d his attorney Jacqueline Perry told Judge Jason Rowley. \u201cThis isn\u2019t high in his area of importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She protested that her client was \u201can innocent party in this,\u201d sadly led astray by his former counsel, who bollixed the case and made a dog\u2019s breakfast of it. And so, she hoped that the court would withhold execution of the judgment until after the malpractice claim is sorted, at which point Trump would be prepared to enter into negotiations over Orbis\u2019s fee.<\/p>\n

Sadly, no.<\/em><\/p>\n

Judge Rowley informed Perry that, should her client fail to remit the \u00a3290,000 forthwith, he\u2019d forfeit the right to contest the fees at all. <\/p>\n

No doubt Chief Justice Roberts and his fellow conservative are inking up their quills to tell those wig-headed limeys where to stick it.<\/p>\n

Trump has refused to pay \u00a3290,000 in legal fees after case dismissed in UK, court told<\/a> [The Guardian]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images) Does Chief Justice Roberts\u2019s jurisdiction extend to the UK? Asking for the sitting president, who appears to think SCOTUS\u2019s presidential crimes permission slip is good worldwide. A year ago, Judge Karen Steyn flushed President Trump\u2019s libel suit against former MI6 agent Chris Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-1546906782-eJASiy.jpeg?fit=594%2C417&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}