Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000.
Stormy Daniels must pay nearly $122,000 in legal fees incurred by Donald Trump in connection with the porn star’s failed defamation lawsuit, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision in California came around the same time that Trump became the first ex-president to face criminal charges. In a New York City courtroom, Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment accusing him of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up allegations of extramarital affairs with Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal that surfaced during his first presidential campaign.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and received $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement days before the 2016 presidential election.
She filed a defamation suit against him after he dismissed her claims of being threatened to keep quiet about the tryst as a “total con job.” In 2018, a judge dismissed the case.
On Tuesday, a commissioner for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump’s attorneys “reasonably spent” more than 183 hours on an appeal of the case, but denied a request for an additional $5,150 in other fees because it was not itemized.
According to Harmeet Dillon, one of Daniels’ attorneys in the case, Daniels has been ordered to pay more than $600,000 in Trump’s legal fees.
This includes approximately $300,000 in attorney’s fees that Daniels was previously ordered to pay.
Daniels stated last year, after a federal appeals court upheld the award, “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
Messages left for her attorney, Oklahoma attorney Clark Brewster, were not returned immediately after hours Tuesday.
