Stormy Daniels Ordered to Pay Up Over Defamation Fight with Trump
Stormy Daniels has been hit with a hefty bill in her long-running legal spat with former President Donald Trump. This latest order for Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, to pay $121,972 in legal fees comes from a defamation case separate from the 34 criminal charges Trump now faces in Manhattan—though both lawsuits centre on Daniels.
Trump’s ‘Con Job’ Tweet Sparks Defamation Case
The defamation suit began when Trump called Daniels’ claims of an affair with him a “total con job” in a 2018 tweet. Daniels had accused Trump of threatening her in a parking lot to keep quiet about the alleged affair. A judge dismissed the case, ruling Trump’s tweet was protected under the First Amendment.
Daniels Faces Crushing Legal Bills
Following the dismissal, Daniels was ordered to cover Trump’s legal fees—initially $293,000. She appealed but was slapped with an additional $245,000 in costs. Now, with the recent $121,972 fee order, the legal money fight looks all but finished.
Trump’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the win, tweeting: “Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favour in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels.”
Two Legal Battles, One Scandal
Though the defamation case is legally separate from Trump’s criminal charges in Manhattan, both are tangled in the same saga. The New York indictment centres on alleged hush money paid to Daniels during the 2016 election—payments claimed to be improperly recorded.
