Lawyers: Porn star must pay $340K
LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for President Donald Trump want porn actress Stormy Daniels to pay them $340,000 in legal bills they claim they earned successfully defending Trump against her failed defamation claim.
The attorneys are due in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Monday to make their case that they rang up big bills because of gamesmanship and aggressive tactics by Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti.
Daniels alleges she had a one-night affair with Trump in 2006. She sued him earlier this year seeking to break a nondisclosure agreement she signed about the tryst days before the 2016 election as part of a $130,000 hush money settlement. Trump has denied the affair, but acknowledged the payment to Daniels.
Despite the deal to stay quiet, Daniels alleged that five years after the affair she was threatened to keep quiet by a man she did not recognize. She also released a composite sketch of the mystery man.
She sued Trump for defamation after he responded to the allegation by tweeting: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job ... !”
U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero ruled in October that Trump’s statement was protected speech under the First Amendment. Trump is entitled to legal fees, Otero said.
Avenatti said the fees are “grossly inflated” and should not exceed $25,000.