While Donald J. Trump was making headlines worldwide from his criminal arraignment in New York City, he won a victory in a different court. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order on Tuesday, April 4, directing Stormy Daniels, the adult film alias of Stephanie Clifford, to pay Donald Trump $121,972.56. The money is to reimburse Trump for attorney’s fees he incurred defending himself against Daniel’s infamous defamation suit filed by disgraced former attorney Michael Avenatti.
Stormy Weather Ahead
Daniels had been on a publicity tour fueled by her account of a tryst with Trump. While on CBS’s 60 Minutes, she alleged the former president sent a thug to threaten her. “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,” Daniels said the man told her before turning to focus on her infant daughter in the back seat. According to Daniels, the man told her, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” In response, Trump tweeted, “A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
Ms. Daniels sued Trump for defamation for the post. United States District Court Judge S. James Otero awarded Trump attorneys’ fees on October 15, 2018. Dismissing Daniels’ suit, he wrote that the tweet “constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the U.S.”
(Photo by Ralf Hirschberger/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Law & Crime reported: “Trump and his legal team, led by Charles Harder, sought upwards of $389,000 from Daniels, as well as sanctions against her and her lawyer Michael Avenatti for what they deemed to be a frivolous lawsuit. Judge Otero ordered that Daniels pay $292,052.33, which he noted was a 25% reduction from what Trump’s team requested, saying the case “should have been litigated much more efficiently.” That was just the start of wrangling over the fee award.
Too much lawyering!
Daniels challenged the award itself, the hourly rates charged, and the time spent doing the work. That effort and Trump’s countermoves have endured until now. Lisa B. Fitzgerald, a Ninth Circuit staff attorney acting as an Appellate Commissioner, wrote the latest order. She said the time spent on the tasks was reasonable, as were the fees charged for the work done. Fitzgerald set aside Daniels’ claims that lawyers could have worked more economically. “Rather than speculate about how a case could have been staffed, the court must limit its inquiry to whether the fees requested by a legal team are justified.”
Daniels previously promised on Twitter, “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.” She could appeal to the US Supreme Court, but the odds of even a hearing in that court for this case are beyond a long shot. The better bet is she finds her checkbook, or she will likely find the US Marshals seizing her property.
