Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump drama continues
Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump
NEW YORK - A federal appeals court has ordered adult film star Stormy Daniels to pay former President Donald Trump nearly $300,00 in legal fees connected to her failed defamation suit against him.
She filed the suit in 2018 after Trump tweeted about a composite sketch of a man Daniels says threatened her in 2011 to keep quiet about an alleged affair. He called it a "total con job."
Daniels claimed the tweet was "false and defamatory," arguing that Trump was speaking about Daniels and that he "knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported." It also said Daniels has been "exposed to death threats and other threats of physical violence."
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, was seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
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Shortly after the case was tossed in October 2018, Trump insulted the physical appearance of Daniels, calling her "Horseface" in a tweet after the case was tossed.
On Monday, Daniels responded to losing the appeal, stating on Twitter: "I will go to jail before I pay a penny."
Trump issued a statement saying: "As I have stated many times throughout the years, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I ever have wanted to. The ruling was a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me."
Daniels responded that she never said it was an affair. She tweeted: "I have said over and over that he CORNERED ME coming out of a bathroom. Well...I guess to him, that IS an affair."
Last month, a federal jury found her former attorney Michael Avenatti guilty of cheating her out of nearly $300,000 in a publisher's advance on her 2018 autobiography.
Avenatti dumped his lawyers and decided to represent himself shortly after the trial began, setting up a face-to-face showdown with Daniels, his former client, who appeared in a new role as star witness.
Trump, Giuliani and Stormy
President Donald Trump says the new addition to his legal team, Rudy Giuliani, will "get his facts straight." Trump, speaking to reporters Friday, suggested that Giuliani had misspoken about reimbursements to the president's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for payments to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement.