Stormy Daniels ordered to pay Trump $293,000 in legal fees

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to pay President Donald Trump about $293,000 in legal fees and sanctions after her defamation suit against him was dismissed.

Trump’s lawyers had requested about $389,000 in legal fees, but the judge, S James Otero of US District Court in California, said the number of billable hours was “excessive” and cut the amount by 25 percent to about $292,000. Writing that Daniels “is already being deterred from filing meritless defamation claims,” Otero ordered her to pay $1,000 in sanctions.

In a statement, one of Trump’s lawyers, Charles J Harder, said, “The court’s order, along with the court’s prior order dismissing Stormy Daniels’ defamation case against the president, together constitute a total victory for the president, and a total defeat for Stormy Daniels in this case.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wrote on Twitter that Trump and his lawyer sought to “fool the public about the importance of the attorneys’ fees” — an effort he called “an absolute joke.”

About two hours later, he added that “Stormy will never have to pay” Trump or his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen “a single dime in attorney’s fees, costs or sanctions.” But the tweet containing the second statement was later deleted.

The judge’s order is intended to close out a defamation suit that had alleged that Trump defamed Daniels on Twitter last spring. The tweet in question was posted by the president on April 18, one day after Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, posted a sketch of a man who, she alleged, threatened her in 2011 as she was first considering speaking out about the affair she said she had with Trump. Trump called the sketch “a total con job,” depicting “a non-existent man.”

In an October decision, the court sided with Trump’s lawyers’ argument that the tweet included an opinion, which the president was free to express, and ordered Daniels to pay his legal fees.

According to court documents released Tuesday, Trump’s team claimed that five lawyers worked on the case, charging anywhere from $307.60 per hour to $841.64 per hour — rates that the court concluded were reasonable.

As recently as last month, the case was a source of tension between Daniels and Avenatti, who rose to fame by positioning themselves as critics of Trump. In a statement provided to The Daily Beast, which was published Nov 28, Daniels accused Avenatti of having filed the defamation suit against Trump against her wishes. Four days later, Daniels tweeted that she and Avenatti had sorted things out.

Avenatti has filed two other lawsuits against the president and Cohen this year.

One seeks to void a 2016 nondisclosure agreement that prevented Clifford from discussing what she said was an affair she had with Trump in 2006. The second claims Clifford’s previous lawyer, Keith Davidson, conspired with Cohen and Trump to keep Clifford quiet.

© 2018 New York Times News Service