Adult film star Stormy Daniels has lost her defamation case against former president Donald Trump and has been ordered to pay $121,972 towards his legal fees. The suit concerned a tweet where Trump dismissed Ms Daniels’ 2011 allegation of being threatened by an unknown man related to her alleged affair with him as a “total con job”. The case was dismissed by judge Samuel James Otero in 2020 who claimed that Mr Trump’s statement was protected by the First Amendment.

Ms Daniels sued Mr Trump for defamation after the tweet, but lost and was ordered to pay Mr Trump's legal fees. She appealed, arguing that the legal fees were too high, but lost again, with the court finding that her “argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well-founded." This marks a minor legal victory for Mr Trump as he was granted a payment for his legal fees in the same year he was indicted of 34 felony counts relating to a payment made to Ms Daniels during the 2016 election, allegedly for “hush money”.