A federal judge has ordered porn star Stormy Daniels pay President Trump nearly $300,000 in attorneys’ fees and dismissed her defamation case.
Central District of California District Court Judge S. James Otero on Tuesday cleared Trump and instructed Daniels to pay him $293,052.33 in attorneys’ fees and other costs he ensued during the legal matter.
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“[P]laintiff is presently seeking to withdraw her other defamation claim that is before this Court and Plaintiff has not taken legal action against Defendant despite rhetorically hyperbolic statements that Defendant has made about Plaintiff in the past week,” Otero wrote. “Plaintiff’s unwillingness to resort to litigation in light of Defendant’s continuing use of rhetorical hyperbole suggests that Plaintiff is already being deterred from filing meritless defamation claims.”
JUST IN: Federal judge orders Stormy Daniels to pay President Donald Trump $293,052.33 in attorneys’ fees in her defamation case against the president, which the judge tossed out. pic.twitter.com/MIfHSijuF9
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) December 11, 2018
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a defamation suit against Trump in April. Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, claimed Trump had hurt her name when he wrote in an April 18 tweet that she was a “total con job” for releasing a sketch of a man she claimed acted on Trump’s behalf and threatened her in 2011.
Otero threw out the defamation case. Avenatti and Daniels unsuccessfully appealed. Trump’s legal team requested $300,000 to cover costs associated with the defamation suit.
Trump has never admitted having an affair with Daniels. However, Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement she claimed was about their 2007 affair.
