Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Donald Trump has just become the first American President to be convicted of a felony, but he faces legal troubles here, too. The former President is in breach of a high court order to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs to a former British spy he tried and failed to sue.

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I think he's just got contempt for the legal process. The fact is that we were awarded a £300,000 initial cost order in February, which was confirmed when his right of appeal was turned at the end of March. He's been in breach of that order for two months now.

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Get out and vote. Get out and vote. Thank you.

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Christopher Steele has been a thorn in Donald Trump's side since the 2016 presidential campaign, when his company produced a salacious dossier for Trump's political opponents, alleging Russian election interference, including claims of blackmail and the use of sex workers, which the former President denies.

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I think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out. I think it's a disgrace.

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When the dossier was leaked to the media after the election, Mr. Trump sued and lost, first in the US and then here. In February, a judge here at the high court, dismissed Donald Trump's case against Christopher Steele and ordered him to pay £300,000 in costs, a figure that could end up even higher. The former spy has since made a formal offer to accept just 70% of what he's owed, but he's still waiting to hear back from the former President. With four legal cases against him still active in the US, this British Court ruling may not be a priority.

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He's focused on all of the other cases, criminal cases against him, on top of which he is now running as the Republican nominee for President of the United States. So it could be as simple as this is the last thing on his mind.

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Christopher Steele is unapologetic. You produced a dossier which which was commissioned by his political opponents, designed to discredit him and possibly stop him getting into the White House. You surprised he's after you.

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I stand by the work we did, the sources we had and the way we handled it. And of course, it's important to realize that we didn't leak the dossier, and yet we are the ones that have been, I would say, persecuted subsequently by Trump and others for it.

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Donald Trump has not responded to Sky News' request for comment. If he wins in November, it raises the prospect of his returning to the UK as President in defiance of the British courts. Paul Kelsow, Sky News.