An appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Stormy Daniels is responsible for paying almost $122,000 in legal fees that were incurred by Donald Trump during her unsuccessful defamation lawsuit as a pornographic actress.
While Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment in a New York City courtroom on allegations of falsifying business records to silence accusations of extramarital affairs with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal during his first presidential campaign, a California court made a decision requiring Daniels to pay nearly $122,000 of Trump’s legal fees related to her failed defamation lawsuit. Trump’s indictment makes him the only ex-president in history to face criminal charges.
Stephanie Clifford, known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, claimed that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump in 2006 and received $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement a few days before the 2016 US presidential election.
After Donald Trump dismissed Stormy Daniels’ allegations of being threatened to remain silent about their affair as a “total con job,” she filed a defamation lawsuit against him. However, the case was dismissed by a judge in 2018.
In a ruling on Tuesday, a commissioner for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stated that Donald Trump’s legal team had “reasonably spent” over 183 hours on an appeal related to Stormy Daniels’ defamation lawsuit. However, the commissioner denied a request for an additional $5,150 in fees as it lacked itemization.
According to a tweet by Harmeet Dillon, one of Donald Trump’s attorneys in the case, Stormy Daniels has been instructed to pay over $600,000 in legal fees to Trump. This includes the recent ruling requiring her to pay nearly $122,000 in fees related to her failed defamation lawsuit.
This comprises of around $300,000 in legal expenses that Daniels was previously instructed to cover.
After a decision by a federal appeals court to affirm that compensation last year, Daniels stated: “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
Requests for a statement from her attorney, Clark Brewster, a lawyer based in Oklahoma, were not responded to immediately outside of business hours on Tuesday.