Newsman: The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the former president on Tuesday, ordering adult film star Stormy Daniels to pay $121,972 in legal fees for a failed defamation suit.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Cliffords, tried to sue Trump for defamation in 2018, specifically taking aim at a tweet attacking her account of being threatened by a stranger in 2011 to stay quiet on her Trump story. Trump attacked the account as a “con job, playing the Fake News Media.”
Federal Judge S. James Otero dismissed the lawsuit, saying Trump’s tweet constitutes ” ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse” and is protected by the First Amendment.
The ruling is not legally connected with the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation that led Trump to be charged with 34 felony counts on Tuesday.
Trump denies the affair but has since admitted he reimbursed his then-attorney Michael Cohen for the hush money payments.
