Porn star, Stormy Daniels was on Tuesday ordered by a federal judge to pay President Donald Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for her failed defamation lawsuit against him.
Judge James Otero, who threw out Daniels’ suit against Trump, asked her to pay the US President $293,052.33 in attorney fees.
He wrote:
Based on the unique nature of this litigation and the Court’s familiarity with the fees charged in this jurisdiction, the Court concludes that Defendant’s rate requests are reasonable.
Ms Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, who allegedly had an affair with Trump in 2016 when his wife just had their son, said last April that she had been threatened by a man in a car park to keep quiet about the alleged affair.
She shared a sketch of the man who she claimed had threatened her and her child.
Mr Trump retweeted the image, calling it a “total con job”, and describing the image as being of a “non-existent man”.
With the help of her attorney Michael Avenatti she took Trump to court. She sued arguing that the president’s tweet was defamatory as it accused Ms Daniels of “committing a serious crime” – namely, falsely accusing a person of threatening her.
But Judge Otero dismissed the suit in October and said Trump’s tweet was a “hyperbolic statement” against a political foe.
Avenatti quickly denounced the president and his lawyers and downplayed the judge’s order on Twitter.
Avenatti tweeted:
Stormy will never have to pay the felon Cohen or Trump a single dime in attorney’s fees, costs or sanctions. The award is dwarfed by the $1.5 million award to be issued in NDA case – the main case where Cohen and Trump have been lying to the court and the public. #Criminals.
Avenatti is representing Daniels in another lawsuit against Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen. Through litigation, the adult film actress is seeking to void a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) about her alleged 2006 affair with the president.
