Los Angeles United States— Stormy Daniels must pay approximately $122,000 of Donald Trump’s attorneys’ fees that accrued in connection with the porn actress’ failed defamation lawsuit, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The decision in California coincided with Trump’s indictment, making him the only former president to face legal charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty in a New York court, facing 34 felony counts of falsifying accounting records in a scheme to hush up allegations of extramarital affairs with Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal that surfaced during his first run for the White House. .
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 as part of a confidentiality agreement days before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels sued Trump for defamation after he dismissed her claims that she had been threatened into silence about the relationship as “a complete sham.” A judge dismissed the case in 2018.
On Tuesday, a commissioner of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Trump’s lawyers “reasonably spent” more than 183 hours on an appeal of the case, but denied the request for another $5,150 in other expenses because they did not they were broken down.
In all, Daniels must pay more than $600,000 of Trump’s legal fees, according to a tweet from Harmeet Dillon, one of the former president’s attorneys in the case.
That includes about $300,000 in legal fees that Daniels was previously ordered to pay.
After a federal appeals court upheld that award last year, Daniels stated:
“I’ll go to jail before I pay a penny.”
His attorney, Clark Brewster, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
