August 22, 2020

Judge Orders Trump to Pay Stormy Daniels $44,000 in Legal Fees

It’s a small victory in an endless legal battle.

Stormy Daniels and Michael Avanatti in 2019Mjt/AdMedia/ZUMA

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It’s been a bad week in court for President Donald Trump. First, Steve Bannon—his former campaign chief and White House aide—was arrested and charged with defrauding donors who had supported a privately funded effort to build a border wall. Then Trump lost his legal bid to delay handing over his tax returns to New York prosecutors. And now, a California judge has ordered him to pay $44,000 in legal fees to porn star Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

The fees stem from Daniels’ fight to be released from a nondisclosure agreement she signed with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen in October 2016, during the presidential campaign, in which Cohen paid her $130,000 in exchange for keeping quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. Trump, who has denied having an affair with Daniels, later reimbursed Cohen for the payment. 

Daniels claimed that the NDA was invalid because Trump himself never signed it. She ultimately prevailed in the case after Trump agreed not to try to enforce the contract or to seek repayment of the $130,000. Cohen, meanwhile, was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations related to the hush-money payment. While the legal case was largely moot, Daniels continued to press for Trump to pay her legal fees and expenses that were required to win the case. On Monday, a California Superior Court judge awarded her $44,100 in legal fees as the prevailing party but denied her motion to recoup about $10,000 in expenses.

Daniels and Trump have been embroiled in legal disputes for years now, and while this week’s award is a big win for Daniels, it’s small change compared to what she owes Trump in legal fees from a different case. In 2018, represented by Michael Avanatti, Daniels filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump over a tweet that attacked her credibility. A federal judge found Trump’s tweet to be protected opinion, dismissed the case, and ordered her to pay Trump nearly $300,000 in legal fees for a case that lasted but six months. 

After the decision, Avanatti tweeted, “We will appeal the dismissal of the defamation cause of action and are confident in a reversal.” He added, “There is something really rich in Trump relying on the First Amendment to justify defaming a woman.” A few months later, Avanatti was arrested on extortion, fraud, and embezzlement charges. He was subsequently charged with stealing nearly $300,000 from Daniels herself. That case is supposed to go to trial in October. Meanwhile, Daniels has continued to appeal the dismissal of her defamation case and the fee award—meaning that her legal battle with Trump may last longer than his presidency or even the alleged affair that started it all.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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