Stormy Daniels must pay Donald Trump $293,052.33 in attorneys’ fees, a federal judge decided on Tuesday. The ruling, which comes from U.S. District Judge James Otero, follows his dismissal of her defamation suit against Trump this past October, according to The Hill.
“Now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas,” the president tweeted. “She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!”
But the victory is only partial for Trump, whose lawyers had requested more than they’re getting. Otero said that the president’s attorneys spent an “excessive” amount of time on the case and decided to reduce the figure she owed.
Daniels sued Trump this year, claiming that a tweet he’d sent in April had defamed her. The Commander in Chief had made fun of her reports that a man had intimidated her in 2011 into keeping quiet about her alleged affair with the president. Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney, then circulated a sketch of the man whom Daniels said threatened her. Trump juxtaposed it with a picture of the porn star’s ex-husband and suggested that they were the same.
In his ruling against Daniels in October, Judge Otero wrote, “The Court agrees with Mr. Trump’s argument because the tweet in question constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States.” Moreover, he said it was protected by the First Amendment.
Daniels still has a pending lawsuit against Trump and the president’s “fixer,” attorney Michael Cohen, to end an NDA related to her supposed 2006 affair with the president.
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