Donald Trump Awarded Roughly $121K in Attorney Fees from Stormy Daniels

By BERT HOOVER First Posted: Apr 04, 2023 11:46 PM EDT

Donald Trump was taken to court on Tuesday because of his claimed affair with Stormy Daniels, but she was left with an enormous bill.

After losing her defamation case against the ex-president, Daniels was ordered to pay more than $121,000 in legal fees to Trump's attorneys by a federal appeals judge, according to Rolling Stone.

The ex-adult film actress filed the suit against Trump, claiming he defamed her when he publicly mocked her claim that an unknown man had threatened her and her daughter after she dropped an In Touch Magazine story about her alleged affair with Trump in 2006, which supposedly happened during a celebrity golf tournament.

A man Daniels claims told her to "Leave Trump alone" approached her soon after she started working with the magazine.

The man also said to "forget the story" and "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom," referring to her baby girl.

Trump tweeted in 2018 that Daniels' allegations were "a sketch years later about a nonexistent man" and "a total can job," spurring the defamation suit.

Judge Dismissed Stormy Daniels' Defamation Case Vs. Trump

The judge ruled in Donald Trump's favor, and she was told to cover his 2018 legal expenses.

Stormy Daniels filed an appeal, claiming the costs were excessive, CBS News noted.

After hearing both sides, the judge concluded that her "argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well-founded."

However, the court did reject a portion of Trump's requested fees: $5,150 to prepare the paper for the fee reply as the request needed to be itemized.

This ruling followed Trump's appearance in a New York City courtroom only hours earlier concerning a distinct criminal case filed by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

The former president faces 34 counts of first-degree falsification of business documents, to which he pleaded not guilty.

The indictment claims that Trump committed fraud by having his former counsel and "fixer," Michael Cohen, pay adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

New York law considers falsifying business records a misdemeanor unless prosecutors can prove the defendant acted intentionally to conduct or cover up another crime.

Trump was accused of breaking the law because his actions were seen as a cover for illegal campaign activity.

Stormy Daniels Paid Donald Trump Around $293,000 in 2018

After filing a lawsuit for defamation against then-President Trump in December 2018 for an "extramarital affair" that he denied, porn star Stormy Daniels was ordered by the court to pay roughly $293,000 for the attorneys' fees and another $1,000 in sanctions.

A federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed the lawsuit, and sanctions totaling only $1,000 were awarded by Judge S. James Otero, who cut the requested legal costs by 25%, per Republic World.

"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," said Charles Harder, Donald Trump's attorney at that time.

Harder also claimed then that Daniels "will never have to pay a dime," as she had already received over $1 million from Trump to cover legal fees and other costs associated with a separate case.