Stormy Daniels: Donald Trump wins 2018 defamation case - lawsuit explained and what she said on Twitter

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford, has been ordered to pay former US president Donald Trump $300,000 in legal fees by the United States Court of Appeals following the conclusion of the long running case.

Daniels, an American adult film star, has said that she would “go to jail” before she ever paid a penny. The original defamation suit was filed back in 2018 by Daniels’ former lawyer Michael Avenatti, something which he did, Daniels has said, “without my permission and against my wishes”.

This is everything you need to know.

What was the Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump scandal?

In 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in October of 2016, a month prior to the election, to prevent her from talking about the alleged encounter.

When the news of the hush money broke, Daniels said that she had been threatened to keep quiet about the allegation in 2011, when she and her young daughter were approached by a stranger in Las Vegas.

She said that the man had said to “leave Trump alone” and that he looked at her daughter and said: “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her.”

Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, later released a sketch of the man in 2018, and in response Trump tweeted: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

What was the defamation case about?

The defamation suit was launched against Trump in April 2018 by Avenatti, which described Trump’s tweet about the sketch as “false and defamatory”.

The lawsuit said: “Mr Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported, and that Ms [Daniels] would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage as a result.”

Daniels said that the defamation lawsuit was filed by Avenatti “without my permission and against my wishes”.

She said: “Once it was filed, Trump’s lawyers overwhelmed Avenatti and I was left the victim of an attorney’s fee award.”

Daniels added that Avenatti “appealed the ruling but failed to timely appeal the attorney’s fee award”, describing her former lawyer as “a terrible excuse for an attorney”.

Daniels fired Avenatti in February 2019 after, she claimed, that he had “forged my name and embezzled my book funds”. Avenatti was indicted in both California and New York on a number of federal counts, including tax evasion, extortion, fraud and embezzlement.

In February 2020, Avenatti was found guilty of all charges against him in New York court and in July 2021 he was found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in California.

What was the ruling?

Daniels lost the defamation lawsuit in 2018 after a federal judge ruled that Trump’s tweet “constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States” and that “the First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement”.

The judge defined “rhetorical hyperbole” as “extravagant exaggeration employed for rhetorical effect” and characterised Trump’s tweet as having “an incredulous tone, suggesting that the content of his tweet was not meant to be understood as a literal statement about [Daniels]”.

The judge continued: “Instead, Mr. Trump sought to use language to challenge [Daniels’] account of her affair and the threat that she purportedly received in 2011.

“As the United States Supreme Court has held, a published statement that is ‘pointed, exaggerated, and heavily laden with emotional rhetoric and moral outrage’ cannot constitute a defamatory statement.”

After the dismissal in 2018, Avenatti immediately appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has now ruled against Daniels again and has stated that she must pay $300,000 in legal fees to the former president.

Following the decision, Trump told reporters: “As I have stated many times throughout the years, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I ever have wanted to.

“The ruling was a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me.”

On Twitter, Daniels wrote that she would “go to jail before I pay a penny”.

What did Stormy Daniels say about the ruling?

Following the loss of her appeal in her failed defamation case, Daniels posted a lengthy statement on Twitter in which she blamed her former lawyer for the outcome.

She wrote that Trump’s win was based simply on a “technicality”.

Daniels tweeted that “the recent court decision ruled January 11, 2019 was the last day for a timely appeal on that issue” and that she had fired Avenatti in February 2019 over fraud and embezzlement claims.

She continued: “I hired Clark Brewster and he took over all my legal matters including the Trump appeals.

“He promptly informed me about Avenatti missing the appeal deadline but also thought the Judge’s fee ruling was irregular in that the Judge failed to file a specific written judgement.

“Mr Brewster sought to appeal the Attorney award based on that apparent defect. Mr Brewster litigated the appeal all the way to a Certiorari writ to the US Supreme Court, where I believed justice would be served.

“The attorney’s fee award remained with the 9th Circuit and was ruled adversely on the failure of a timely appeal.

“To be clear: Trump won yesterday on a technicality due to Avenatti’s failure to file promptly. That technical ruling, although distressing, does not reflect on anything I have done or my credibility but is the result of negligence of a criminal lawyer, Michael Avenatti.”

What else did Stormy Daniels say?

In her Twitter statement, Daniels began by clarifying the details regarding the case and wrote that it “was not a criminal case or ruling” and that it was “not about whether we had sex or not”.

“This was simply about if he could tweet rude and false things about me. Also, I never said it was an “affair”,” she wrote.

Daniels continued by saying that her statement has not changed since she came forward and that it has been “collaborated and verified by others since 2006”.

She wrote: “He cornered me as I was exiting a restroom and intimidated me into unprotected intercourse. Later, he had Michael Cohen pay me hush money to not disclose what happened to me and the things I was told that could damage his campaign.

“I guess maybe in his mind, this does equal an affair since it seems to be Trump’s pattern with women. Or maybe he simply does not understand his own court case - neither would surprise me, actually.

“Mr Grab Them By the P***y definitely has a history for doing whatever he wants to women and has a penchant for intimidation.”

Daniels ended her statement by writing: “It is a sad reality that in this country, a known and proven predator can only brag about assaulting women and become president and be awarded money for his bad behaviour.

“My heart goes out to the others that have been victimised by Trump. I deeply regret not standing up for myself that night and for not speaking out sooner.

“I hope that one day the women who came after me can forgive me.”

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