A judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday ruled in favor of Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who authored a dossier of alleged ties between President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE's campaign and Russia, in a libel suit.

In the ruling first reported by The Guardian, Judge Anthony Epstein upheld a decision to dismiss a case by three Russian oligarchs who had sued Steele and his firm for defamation for reports in the dossier. The judge said the men had not sufficiently proved that Steele knew any of the information in the document was false.

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Republicans and allies of President Trump have erroneously accused the FBI of beginning an investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia based off claims made in the Steele dossier, when in fact the investigation was launched due to comments former campaign aide George PapadopoulosGeorge Demetrios PapadopoulosTale of two FBI cases: Clinton got warned, Trump got investigated Trump says he would consider pardons for those implicated in Mueller investigation New FBI document confirms the Trump campaign was investigated without justification MORE made to Australian officials.

The judge said the ruling was not on the merits of the information itself, The Guardian noted, and instead hinged on whether Steele acted with malice to defame the businessmen.

The three men, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan, own stakes in Alfa Bank, a Russia-based bank that was alleged in the dossier, among other charges, to have been involved in illicit payments made to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Alfa has denied the charges, telling The Guardian in a statement that it "strongly disagreed" with the judge's findings and that the company would "almost certainly appeal" the decision.

Steele's attorney, Christy Hull Eikhoff, told the newspaper that attacks on Steele's credibility were "baseless" and that Steele would continue to fight any legal claims arising from his work on the dossier.

“We will continue to defend against baseless attacks on Chris and hope that the result of this case will be a message to those who seek to intimidate Chris and his company," she said.