Breaking Reports: Court of Appeals Awards Trump Over $600K in Stormy Daniels Defamation Suit
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly has ordered adult film star Stormy Daniels to pay former President Donald Trump an additional $121,000 in attorney fees Tuesday.
That amount was on top of the over $500,000, the court has already directed her pay, according to Trump attorney Harmeet Dhillon.
“Congratulations to President Trump on this final attorney fee victory in his favor this morning. Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels,” Dhillon tweeted.
Trump’s son Eric Trump also tweeted, “[T]he 9th Circuit just awarded Trump $121,962.56 in attorney fees from Stormy Daniels. Order just released. This in addition to the roughly $500k she already owes him.”
Congratulations to President Trump on this final attorney fee victory in his favor this morning. Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels. https://t.co/ld7SVvZOp6 pic.twitter.com/1b5P3flxFb
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) April 4, 2023
NBC News reported in March 2022 that the 9th Circuit had ruled against Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, finding at that time she owed Trump approximately $300,000 in legal fees.
In 2018, Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti filed a defamation suit against Trump.
Avenatti and Daniels had released a sketch of a man that year, who they claimed had threatened Daniels and her daughter in 2011 if the porn star talked about Trump.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!” Trump tweeted in response.
Daniels’ suit claimed that Trump’s tweet was “false and defamatory,” according to NBC News.
“Mr. Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported, and that Ms. Clifford would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage as a result,” the suit said.
However, a federal judge in California sided with Trump finding the tweet, “constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States.”
“The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement,” Judge James Otero wrote and ruled that Trump was entitled to attorney fees in the case.
The 9th Circuit upheld that ruling.
Daniels said in a statement following the 9th Circuit’s decision that Avenatti filed the suit without her permission and against her wishes.
“Once it was filed, Trump’s lawyers overwhelmed Avenatti and I was left the victim of an attorney’s fee award,” she said. “I will go to jail before I pay a penny,” Daniels added.
The award of further attorney fees in the defamation case comes on the same day Trump appeared in a Manhattan court for an arraignment hearing involving an alleged hush money payment made to Daniels in 2016 by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen.
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