Adult movie star Stormy Daniels has misplaced her appeal in her failed defamation swimsuit towards Donald Trump — leaving her owing nearly $300,000 in authorized charges to the previous president.
“I will go to jail before I pay a penny,” Daniels tweeted Monday after the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dominated towards her within the long-running case.
Trump hailed the ruling by the appeals courtroom he typically bashed as president, calling it “a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me.”
Michael Avenatti filed the defamation swimsuit towards Trump in 2018 when he was Daniels’ lawyer. Daniels, whose actual title is Stephanie Clifford, mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that Avenatti had filed the swimsuit “without my permission and against my wishes.”
“Once it was filed, Trump’s lawyers overwhelmed Avenatti and I was left the victim of an attorney’s fee award,” she added, calling it a “sad reality” {that a} “predator” like Trump “can openly brag about assaulting women and become president and be awarded money for his bad behavior.”
Daniels was paid $130,000 by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen earlier than the 2016 presidential election to stay silent about an alleged sexual encounter she had with the married Trump in 2006.
Trump has denied the encounter occurred, and did once more in his assertion Monday. “As I have stated many times throughout the years, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I ever have wanted to,” he mentioned.
After news of the hush cash fee turned public, Daniels mentioned she was menaced and warned to maintain quiet in regards to the alleged encounter in 2011, when a person approached her whereas she was together with her toddler daughter in Las Vegas and informed her to “leave Trump alone.”
She mentioned the person then checked out her daughter and mentioned, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Daniels and Avenatti launched a sketch of the person in 2018, which was mocked on Twitter by then-President Trump.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!” Trump tweeted.
Daniels’ lawsuit referred to as Trump’s tweet “false and defamatory.”
“Mr. Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported, and that Ms. Clifford would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage as a result,” Daniels’ lawsuit mentioned.
A federal decide in California, nonetheless, sided with Trump, and located that the tweet “constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States.”
“The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement,” Judge James Otero wrote, discovering that Trump was entitled to legal professional’s charges within the case.
The ninth Circuit upheld that ruling on Friday, discovering partly that Daniels had waited too lengthy to problem the decrease courtroom’s ruling. In her assertion Tuesday, Daniels blamed Avenatti for that delay.
Daniels’ new attorneys didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Avenatti was discovered responsible earlier this 12 months of wire fraud and id theft for wrongly pocketing about $300,000 of the $800,000 advance that was paid to Daniels for her e book, “Full Disclosure.”
He was additionally convicted in 2020 of extortion, transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort and wire fraud in connection to threats he made towards Nike, the sports activities tools and attire big. Last 12 months, a federal decide sentenced him to 2½ years behind bars for these crimes.
Courtney Brogle contributed.