US Court orders Stormy Daniels to pay Trump USD 120,000 more in legal fees

Washington [US], April 5 : Adult film star Stormy Dels has been ordered to pay, over USD 120,000 in legal fees to the attorneys of former US President Donald Trump, by a federal appeals court in California.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday (local time) ordered Dels to pay Trump's attorneys just over USD 120,000 in legal fees. That's on top of the over USD 500,000 in court-ordered payments to Trump attorneys that she has to pay.

Dels had filed and lost a defamation suit against the former president, reported CNN.

The order was delivered on the same day that a Manhattan court arraigned Trump on 34 charges related to alleged hush money payments to Dels to cover up a purported affair between the two.

Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the alleged payments. It's the first time a former US president has faced criminal charges.

The civil litigation is officially unrelated to Trump's arrest and charges filed against him in New York but both involved Dels, who was paid USD 130,000 in hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an affair. Trump denies the affair, reported CNN.

Dels sued Trump in 2018 after Trump in a tweet called an allegation by Dels that an unknown man threatened her in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump a "total con job."

Dismissing the lawsuit in October 2018, federal Judge S James Otero said Trump's statement was protected by the First Amendment, reported CNN.

"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. The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement," Otero wrote at the time.

Otero later ordered Dels to pay roughly USD 293,000 in legal fees. Dels was also ordered to pay another USD 245,000 in fees after losing another appeal, reported CNN.

Dels, whose legal name is Stephe Clifford, had asked the appeals court to knock down another award. The court declined her request.

"Clifford's argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well-founded," the 9th Circuit filing states.

"Trump's attorneys reasonably spent the requested 183.35 hours preparing a motion to dismiss, a reply to the opposition to the motion, two extension motions, the answering brief, and the fee application," it added.

In March 2022, Dels said she would "go to jail" before paying a penny to Trump after a failed defamation suit filed by Dels' former lawyer, Michael Avenatti.