Daniels ordered to pay $293,000 in lawyer fees

LOS ANGELES — Porn star Stormy Daniels must pay President Donald Trump nearly $293,000 for his attorneys’ fees and another $1,000 in sanctions after her defamation suit against him was dismissed, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered on Tuesday.

Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, had requested nearly $390,000 in fees, but Judge S. James Otero cut the amount by 25 percent. He also wanted a nearly equal amount in sanctions, but only received $1,000. Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents Daniels, tweeted the order “will never hold up on appeal.”

Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement days before the 2016 presidential election.

She sued him after he dismissed her claims of being threatened to keep quiet about the tryst as a “total con job.” The judge threw out that case in October.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, still has a case pending in Los Angeles challenging a nondisclosure agreement she signed with Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to prevent her from discussing the alleged affair.

Harder defended a nearly $390,000 legal bill and asked for an equal amount in sanctions as a deterrent against a “repeat filer of frivolous defamation cases.”

Otero previously noted that fees by Harder’s firm — as high as $840 an hour — were reasonable but the 580 hours spent on the case appeared to be excessive.

Daniels alleges she had a one-night affair. She sued Trump earlier this year seeking to break a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 election about the tryst as part of a $130,000 hush money settlement. Trump has denied the affair but essentially acknowledged the payment to Daniels.

Despite the deal to stay quiet, Daniels spoke out publicly and alleged that five years after the affair, she was threatened to keep quiet by a man she did not recognize in a Las Vegas parking lot. She also released a composite sketch of the mystery man.

She sued Trump for defamation after he responded to her allegation by tweeting: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

Otero ruled in October that Trump’s statement was “rhetorical hyperbole” against a political adversary and was protected speech under the First Amendment.