Donald Trump Jr. and other supporters of Donald Trump celebrated on Tuesday as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Stormy Daniels to pay the former president nearly $122,000 in legal fees from a defamation suit she brought against him. This comes as Trump recently entered a plea of not guilty in a case that involves a hush-money payment to Daniels, a porn actress.
The case dates back to 2018 when Daniels and her attorney Michael Avenatti appeared on The View to release a sketch of a man who Daniels said had threatened her to keep silent in 2011 about a one-night stand between her and Trump. Trump responded swiftly, tweeting that the sketch was of a nonexistent man and calling it “a total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!” Daniels then sued Trump for defamation based on that tweet, but the case was dismissed later that year.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a Tuesday order that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, will have to pay Trump for the fees he accrued to Dhillon Law Group for 183.35 hours of work. The total amount is $121,972.56. This is in addition to the more than $293,000 that Daniels had been ordered to pay after losing in district court and $245,000 for unsuccessfully pursuing an earlier appeal.
Trump’s attorney, Ronna Romney McDaniel, celebrated the court’s decision on Twitter, noting that her firm has obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in Trump’s favor. Donald Trump Jr. was also pleased with the ruling, tweeting “The only thing Stormy Daniels and her lawyer got out of this ridiculous lawsuit was a massive bill for legal fees!”
The decision could be seen as a win for Trump and his supporters, who have been vocal about their defense of the former president and his innocence in the ongoing case against him. Democrats, on the other hand, are likely disappointed with the ruling, as it further cements the idea that Daniels’s suit was unfounded and a waste of time and resources.
While Daniels has previously stated that she would rather go to jail than pay a single penny to Trump, it looks as though she will have to pay the nearly $122,000 in legal fees. It remains to be seen if this will be the end of the road for the Stormy Daniels saga, or if there will be more legal wrangling in the future.