Stormy Daniels Ordered To Pay Trump $293,000 In Fees In Defamation Lawsuit
Adult film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump more than a decade ago, has been ordered to pay him nearly $293,000 for attorneys' fees and another $1,000 in sanctions after her defamation suit was dismissed.
Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed Daniels' defamation case, which she filed over a tweet President Trump sent in April suggesting Daniels was lying about being threatened in 2011 not to go public with her story of an alleged 2006 tryst. Trump denies Daniels' claims of a past sexual relationship with him.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles judge ruled on the amount Daniels must pay, though it's almost a quarter less than the almost $390,000 that Trump's attorney had wanted.
The claim from Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is at the heart of the campaign finance violations that Trump's former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to in New York federal court for facilitating so-called hush-money payments to Daniels and another women in order for them to stay quiet just ahead of Election Day in 2016.
Trump has denied any sexual relationship with Daniels, though he has admitted to authorizing the $130,000 payment. Trump has also denied the second woman's claims of a past sexual relationship.
Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted that the major case to be settled is the lawsuit over the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed.
[Copyright 2018 NPR]
