A California federal judge yesterday awarded attorneys for President Donald Trump nearly $300,000 in fees following a failed defamation claim brought by porn star Stephanie Clifford.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero directed Clifford to pay $293,052.33 to Donald Trump's lawyers, after concluding that the attorneys were entitled to most of the $389,403.11 they had sought.
Stephanie Clifford, known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, brought her claim after Donald Trump sent out a tweet dismissing comments she had made during interviews.
Daniels had said in a TV interview that she had been confronted in 2011 after alleging an affair with Donald Trump in what she believed was an attempt to silence her. Following the claim, Trump tweeted that the person who made the threats was a “non-existent man” stating her allegation was a “total con job.”
The tweet was deemed to be free speech according to Judge Otero since it related to a matter of public concern and involved public figures.
Ruling, he wrote, Daniels was “in the process of making her story known to the world,” Otero said. He said the president’s tweets appeared to be “hyperbole that would be protected.”
Such speech “lies at the heart of the First Amendment” and to try to restrict it would have a “chilling effect on candidates running for office," the judge said.
Attorneys for Daniels argued that Trump’s tweet was false.
This story appeared originally in USA Today
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here