https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-seeks-more-than-300g-in-attorneys-fees-from-stormy-daniels
Trump seeks more than 300G in attorney’s fees from Stormy Daniels
By
Benjamin Brown | Fox News
Judge dismisses Stormy Daniels defamation suit against Trump
President Trump awarded attorneys' fees in suit dismissal.
President Donald Trump is seeking more than $300,000 in attorney fees after a federal judge in Los Angeles threw out adult-film actress Stormy Daniel’s defamation lawsuit on free-speech grounds earlier this month.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, sued the president in April over a tweet in which he denied her claims of being threatened by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 –
calling it a “total con job.”
“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. He retweeted a side-by-side image comparing the sketch with a photo of Daniels’ husband.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, previously said the tweet damaged his client’s credibility by portraying her as a liar.
“The court agrees with Mr. Trump’s argument because the tweet in question constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the U.S.,” U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles said in a ruling Monday, as Bloomberg reported. “The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement.”
The ruling also stated Trump is “entitled to an award of his attorneys’ fees” against Daniels, the president’s attorney Charles Harder said in a statement to Fox News earlier this month.
Trump is requesting $341,559.50 in attorney’s fees from Daniels, according to a court filing on Monday by the president’s attorneys, the
Washington Examiner reported.
The filing in Los Angeles court claimed Daniels “filed this action, not because it had any merit, but instead for the ulterior purposes of raising her media profile, engaging in political attacks against the president by herself and her attorney, who has appeared on more than 150 national television news interviews attacking the President and now is exploring a run for the presidency himself in 2020,” according to the outlet.
Fox News’ Frank Miles, Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.