Although former US President Donald Trump is facing investigations related to his payment to buy the silence of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in New York, he has achieved a legal victory against her in a separate aspect of the same case, but in a different state.
On Tuesday, Trump attended a court hearing where he denied accusations related to paying $130,000 to Daniels before the 2016 presidential elections. In a separate case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled that Daniels must pay $120,000 to Trump to cover his attorney’s fees in a defamation lawsuit she had filed against him and lost.
According to CNN, in addition to the over $500,000 that the court previously ordered her to pay, this amount is also to be paid by her.
In 2018, Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump for branding her allegation about being threatened for revealing her affair with him as a “scam”.
The court dismissed the lawsuit in October 2018, holding that Trump’s statement was protected by the Constitution under the First Amendment.
The actress was ordered by the court to pay approximately $293,000 in legal fees. Additionally, she was required to pay $245,000 after losing another appeal.
On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals issued its final ruling, saying Trump’s lawyers “had spent more than 183 hours appealing the case.”
In all, the actress will pay Trump about $600,000, according to Harmit Dillon, Trump’s attorney.
“Congratulations to President Trump on this final victory. Collectively, our firm has won over $600,000 in attorneys’ fees in his meritless litigation,” Dillon tweeted Tuesday.
