As Donald Trump is facing 34 counts of criminal charges related to business fraud and the hush money payments allegedly sent to Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair, some good news for the former president just rolled in. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just awarded Trump an additional $121,000 in his Stormy Daniels defamation lawsuit to be paid by the actress for attorney fees, according to The Western Journal.
The total amount of money to be paid to Trump is now $600,000. Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney for the president, congratulated him on his final victory in the suit over Twitter, adding that the suit brought against him by Daniels was without merit.
https://twitter.com/pnjaban/status/1643331602511011848?s=20
The defamation suit was originally filed in 2018 against Trump by Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ attorney. The two claimed that there was a man who threatened her and her daughter in 2011 if Daniels ever spoke about Trump. Trump responded on Twitter and denied the validity of the sketch, calling it a “con job” that played into the fake news media.
Daniels then accused the tweet of being “false and defamatory,” which opened up the floodgates to the lawsuit. The suit alleged that Trump knew that his statement regarding the matter would be widely read and open Stephanie Clifford, Daniels’ real name, to threats and violence.
But a federal judge in California would not take the bait and instead sided with the former president, saying that his tweet counted as “rhetorical hyperbole” that was typical of political discourse. Judge James Otero also noted that Trump’s speech was protected by the First Amendment, which was then upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Daniels has said that she is not paying a penny because the suit was filed by Avenatti against her wishes. Avenatti was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of stealing millions of dollars from his clients, according to CNN.
