An Unexpected Paradox in the Trump-Daniels Case
After his conviction in the “hush money” case late last month, it seems that former US President Donald Trump’s case with actress Stormy Daniels is not over yet.
Despite Trump’s historic conviction, the 45-year-old artist still owes him thousands of dollars, including more than $600,000 in legal fees that Daniels owes Trump, according to his lawyers.
Unpaid Judgments
A week after a Manhattan jury convicted Trump of falsifying records to conceal a scheme to keep Daniels silent before the 2016 election, lawyers for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and Daniels disagreed at a hearing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court regarding the unpaid judgments, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The financial dispute is a lingering subplot of a salacious political drama that came to light in 2018 when The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her from airing her claims that she had a one-night stand with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
Defamation battle
The scandal escalated into a defamation battle waged by Daniels against Trump that ended with the porn star denouncing him.
That legal battle erupted in 2018 after Daniels posted a drawing of an unidentified man who she claimed threatened her in 2011 to keep quiet about her encounter with Trump.
Daniels, who was then represented by jailed celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, sued Trump for defamation when he tweeted that the drawing was a “hoax.” While federal district and appeals courts have dismissed her case, Daniels has been ordered to pay Trump several hundred thousand dollars, plus interest, almost all to cover Trump’s legal fees in the case.
Financial disclosure not paid
Trump’s lawyers have said Daniels, whose first name is Stephanie Clifford, has failed to pay several judgments and are accusing her of obstructing their demands that she complete a financial disclosure of her income and assets as required in Florida collection cases.
Four days after Daniels finished testifying in the hush-hush trial, lawyers representing Trump in the Palm Beach case presented lengthy excerpts of her testimony about her finances and employment.
They also highlighted lines from the transcript, including parts of her questioning when she was asked about social media posts she made vowing not to hand over a dime to Trump, even if it meant prison.
“I hope I don’t have to pay him, no matter what,” she testified.
Meanwhile, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Maxine Cheeseman ordered Daniels to complete the financial questionnaire she had left blank on Thursday.
“You have to stick to the form, and you have to do it quickly,” the judge told Daniels’ lawyers during a remote hearing.
$800K Deal
Daniels’ lawyer, Allison Friedman, made clear at the hearing that she wanted to wait until she had a confidentiality agreement on the materials.
Trump’s criminal defense team has tried to show that Daniels’s association with him was lucrative. She was asked about the $800,000 deal she negotiated and the $100,000 she received for participating in a documentary about her life that was released in March before the criminal trial.
