An appeals court in the United States has upheld an earlier decision ordering adult film actress Stormy Daniels to pay former President Donald Trump nearly $122,000 in legal fees, according to a report from The Associated Press.
The order came from the Ninth Circuit Court.
The fees relate to a defamation lawsuit that Daniels filed against Trump in 2018, which was later dismissed by the court.
These legal proceedings are separate from the 34-count indictment in New York that accuses Trump of falsifying business records, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
However, both cases involve Daniels, who was paid $130,000 in 2016 to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) ahead of the presidential election.
This prevented her from speaking about an alleged one-night affair with Trump in 2006.
Gina Rodriguez, a representative for Stormy Daniels, has already confirmed that the adult film star did sign a 2018 letter in which she affirmed that the alleged “affair” between herself and Trump “never happened.”
The NDA was arranged by Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen.
Despite Trump denying that the affair ever happened, he recently posted on his social media platform, TruthSocial, claiming that the $130,000 NDA was “totally legal.”
This latest order to pay legal fees adds to the more than $500,000 that Daniels has already been ordered to pay to cover Trump’s legal fees.
In March 2022, a federal appeals court rejected her request to overturn a lower court decision regarding the 2018 defamation suit, and ordered her to pay $293,000.
Additionally, Daniels was also ordered to pay $245,000 in fees after losing another appeal.
Daniels stated at the time, “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
