A federal appeals court in California on Tuesday ordered adult film star Stormy Daniels to pay over $120,000 in legal fees to the attorneys of former US President Donald Trump. This is in addition to the $500,000 she was already ordered to pay Trump's attorneys in court-ordered payments. Daniels had filed and lost a defamation suit against the former president.
On the same day that this order was delivered by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, a Manhattan court arraigned Trump on 34 charges related to alleged hush money payments to Daniels to cover up a purported affair between the two. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the alleged payments, making him the first former US president to face criminal charges.
The civil litigation is officially unrelated to Trump's arrest and charges filed against him in New York, but both involved Daniels, who was paid $130,000 in hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an affair. Trump denies the affair.
Daniels sued Trump in 2018 after he called an allegation by Daniels that an unknown man threatened her in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump a "total con job." However, the lawsuit was dismissed in October 2018, with the federal Judge S James Otero ruling that Trump's statement was protected by the First Amendment.
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Otero later ordered Daniels to pay roughly $293,000 in legal fees. Daniels was also ordered to pay another $245,000 in fees after losing another appeal. Daniels had asked the appeals court to reduce the award, but the court declined her request, stating that "Trump's attorneys reasonably spent the requested 183.35 hours preparing a motion to dismiss, a reply to the opposition to the motion, two extension motions, the answering brief, and the fee application."
In March 2022, Daniels said she would "go to jail" before paying a penny to Trump after a failed defamation suit filed by Daniels' former lawyer, Michael Avenatti. The legal battle between Daniels and Trump continues, with both parties being ordered to pay hefty legal fees.
