Court: Stormy Daniels Must Pay Trump $300K

She says she will go to jail before paying a dime
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 22, 2022 2:27 PM CDT
Stormy Daniels Owes Trump $300K, Says She Won't Pay
Stormy Daniels, accompanied by her attorney, Michael Avenatti, right, talks to the media as she leaves federal court, on April 16, 2018 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Stormy Daniels says she'll sit behind bars before she pays Donald Trump's legal fees in her failed defamation suit. "I will go to jail before I pay a penny," the porn star tweeted Monday after a federal appeals court rejected her bid to overturn a lower court ruling that established she owed the former president nearly $300,000. The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the ruling Friday, saying it had no jurisdiction over the appeal because it wasn't filed within 30 days of the ruling, CNBC reports. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case last month. Trump celebrated "a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me" in a Monday statement.

"The lawsuit was a purely political stunt that never should have started, or allowed to happen, and I am pleased that my lawyers were able to bring it to a successful conclusion after the court fully rejected her appeal," Trump added. "Now all I have to do is wait for all of the money she owes me." Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, sued Trump in 2018 after he suggested that she lied about being threatened by a man to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 affair with the former president. She owes Trump roughly the same amount that her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, was found to have stolen from her, per Newsweek. He is awaiting sentencing for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. (More Stormy Daniels stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X