Former porn star Stormy Daniels was ordered by a federal court to pay Donald Trump $300,000 in attorney fees after it rejected her appeal to another’s court ruling in her defamation case against the former president.
In a statement issued on Monday, March 21, 2022, Trump celebrated the news and said that ‘all I have to do is wait for all of the money she owes me.’
‘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, according to CNBC.
The ruling by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit followed an earlier ruling by a lower court that rejected Daniels’ defamation suit against Trump after he refuted her claims that they had sex in 2006.
The lengthy legal battle has set a chain reaction of appeals, with attorneys for both parties being convicted of felonies.
Last month, US celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti was found guilty of stealing $300,000 from Daniels, who was due the money for writing a book about her alleged tryst with Trump.
Avenatti shot to fame by advising Daniels in 2018 after she claimed then-President Trump had cheated on Melania with Daniels and then paid her off to try and secure his 2016 election victory.
The disgraced lawyer was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft following a trial in the Manhattan federal court in New York in early February.
Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer for ten years, was also sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 for, among other offenses, paying Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged liaison with Trump.
The hush payment, made shortly before the 2016 president election, violated campaign finance laws.
The Ninth Circuit US court of appeals ruled on Monday that it had no jurisdiction over Daniel’s appeal as she missed a 30-day deadline to appeal after a lower court first ordered her to pay the attorney fees to Trump.
The porn star, 42, shot to fame in 2018 when it emerged that Donald Trump had paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about their affair, 11 days before the 2016 election.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, has since written a book and embarked on nationwide stripping tours.
More recently, Daniels has reinvented herself as a psychic and is traveling the country for a documentary, accompanied by Susan – a doll she claims is ‘haunted by the spirit of a girl who died in the 1960s.’
Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer for ten years, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged liaison with Trump.
After Daniels sued to void a non-disclosure agreement with Cohen in 2018, a judge ordered Trump in 2020 to pay Daniels more than $44,000 for her legal fees.
Daniels then sued Trump for defamation in 2018 for calling her a liar, after Trump accused her of planning ‘a con job,’ when she claimed a man threatened her to keep quiet about their alleged affair.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge and Daniels appealed the decision in 2021 before her appeal was rejected yet again on Monday.
Source: Daily Mail
