Stormy Daniels was ordered to pay President Donald Trump’s full legal defense fees incurred during their lengthy battle after a federal court rejected her appeal in her defamation case against him. The fading porn star who turned to scandalizing a President to save a flagging career originally lost her defamation lawsuit against Trump in 2018.
The court has commanded her to pay Trump’s legal fees in full and she is further ordered to pay $1,000 in punitive damages.
She appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court for the 9th Circuit to overturn the lower court ruling. The Appeals court ruled against Daniels.
The 9th Circuit Court claimed in its judgment that it did not have the jurisdiction to reverse the payment of the legal fees due to the fact that Daniels did not submit a notice of appeals within a 30-day period.
Daniels has alleged that she and President Trump had sex in 2006, which Trump has strenuously refuted..
“The case has its origins in the fall of 2016, when Trump was the Republican nominee for president, and his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her agreement to keep quiet about her claim of having had sex with Trump,” reports CNBC. “When Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal crimes, which included campaign finance violations related to the payment, he said he paid Daniels the money at Trump’s direction.”
Daniels took legal action against Trump while he was serving as president in 2018 in an attempt to nullify the nondisclosure she had accepted with his then-attorney Michael Cohen. Trump agreed to not enforce the ND agreement and also was ordered to pay just over $44,000 for Daniels’ legal fees in 2020.
Daniels took it a step further and filed a defamation claim against Trump in 2018 when he posted a tweet calling a police sketch of a man Daniels said threatened her in 2011 a “con job.”.
In 2018, a federal court said Trump’s opinions were protected by the First Amendment and ruled against the defamation claim.
After the New York Supreme Court declined Daniel’s appeal in 2021, she took her case the 9th Circuit Court.
Trump released an email declaration on March 21 celebrating the ruling.
“The lawsuit was a purely political stunt that never should have started, or allowed to happen, and I am pleased that my lawyers were able to bring it to a successful conclusion after the court fully rejected her appeal,” Trump said. “Now all I have to do is wait for all of the money she owes me.”
He described the as “a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me.”
“P.S. The Fake News probably won’t report this story!” he added.
Daniels took to Twitter to very adamantly say she did not intend to pay the court-ordered amount.
I will go to jail before I pay a penny
— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) March 22, 2022
Throughout the legal fight, legal representatives for both Daniels as well as Trump have been convicted of felonies related to the effect of Daniel’s allegations.
Michael Avenatti, Daniel’s former attorney, was convicted in February of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing $300,000 she had been paid to pen a book regarding her alleged liaison with Trump.
H/T Timcast
