Trump Turns Tables, Slaps Stormy with 6-Figure Demand in Legal Battle
No one’s ever said Donald Trump doesn’t know how to fight back.
Republican competitors for the presidential nomination learned that during the 2016 primary campaign.
Hillary Clinton, the Democrats and the mainstream media learned it during the general election. And if porn star Stormy Daniels and her aggressive attorney Michael Avenatti didn’t know it already, they’re learning it now.
According to the Washington Examiner, Trump’s attorneys are asking for a six-figure judgment from Daniels after a judge tossed a defamation suit Daniels filed against the president in mid-October.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, the Oct. 15 ruling by Judge James S. Otero of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles made Daniels liable for the attorneys’ fees Trump incurred in defending himself against the defamation suit.
In a court filing Monday, according to the Washington Examiner, Trump’s attorneys are seeking $341,559.50.
And the wording is scathing.
The filing, according to the Examiner, argues that Daniels and Avenatti “filed this action, not because it had any merit, but instead for the ulterior purposes of raising her media profile, engaging in political attacks against the president by herself and her attorney, who has appeared on more than 150 national television news interviews attacking the President and now is exploring a run for the presidency himself in 2020.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, the defamation lawsuit related to a Twitter post Trump published in the spring, mocking a description Daniels gave of a man she claimed had threatened her in 2011 as a warning to keep her from speaking publicly about a sexual encounter she claims she had with Trump in 2006.
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
That tweet was protected free speech under the First Amendment, Otero ruled.
And Trump immediately made it clear that he intended to take advantage of the fact that he could force Daniels to pay his legal fees.
“Federal Judge throws out Stormy Daniels lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.” @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018
On Tuesday, according to the Washington Examiner, Avenatti scoffed at the figure Trump is seeking. And his lawsuit against related to a non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed related to her alleged encounter with Trump would more than make up for it, he claimed.
“This is a number created out of whole cloth,” Avenatti said in a statement, the newspaper reported. “And it is nothing compared to what he will owe my client from the main NDA case.”
Maybe. And maybe Avenatti, who has made noises about seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, will keep fighting Trump in court.
But as he and his client are already learning, Donald Trump knows how to fight back.
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