April 5 (UPI) — Stormy Daniels was ordered to pay nearly $122,000 in legal fees to former President Donald Trump‘s attorneys in a 2018 defamation lawsuit on Tuesday.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Daniels, born Stephanie Clifford, to pay $121,972.56 to Trump’s lawyers on the same day the former president was arraigned for allegedly making hush money payments to the adult film star.
“Clifford’s argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well founded,” the court filing said. “Trump’s requested rates are reasonable and they are awarded.”
The fees were awarded in civil litigation stemming from Daniels’ lawsuit against Trump in 2018 over a Trump tweet in which Trump said Daniels’ allegation that she was threatened by an unknown man in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged sexual liaison with Trump was “a total con job.”
Her suit was dismissed in October 2018 by District Judge S. James Otero. Daniels was liable for the legal fees following the dismissal of her suit.
Daniels had claimed that the legal fees were unreasonable and excessive.
But in ruling Daniels was liable for the fees, the 9th Circuit Court filing said, “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.”
The court said Trump’s attorneys reasonably spent the requested 183.55 hours preparing a motion to dismiss Daniel’s lawsuit.
The fees are owed to the Harder LLP and Dhillon Law Group law firms.
Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to falsifying records in a series of hush money schemes.
Bragg said the felony indictment against Trump was not just for paying hush money to Daniels. He said Trump was charged because he allegedly “orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.”
