The final settlement of Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit against Trump in the 2022 trial, after he was arrested and charged with defamation

Daniels tried to appeal the decision in 2022, saying she didn’t want her lawyer to file a defamation suit against her. But a judge ruled against her, leaving her on the hook for nearly $300,000 in Trump’s legal fees.

The civil litigation, which involved Daniels, was unrelated to Trump’s arrest and charges filed against him in New York. (Trump denies the affair.)

Daniels tried toSue Trump for defamation in 2018, she was angry at a comment he made about her story being threatened to stay quiet. Trump attacked the account for being a fake news story.

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 fee application, two extension motions, and a reply to an opposition to a motion were some of the things that the attorneys for the Trump organization spent almost 200 hours on.

The final attorney fee victory for Trump was celebrated Tuesday by his attorney who said he’d give the president a hug. Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels.”

Daniels subsequently filed a motion to knock down the fee payment. On Tuesday, the court dismissed in part her latest request, which only increased the bill she has to pay.

Daniels argued that the law group asked for fees to be reduced, and that they had overstaffed the appeal, and performed duplicative tasks.

She specifically asked the judge to cap the law firm’s rates at $500/hourly for partners and $350/hourly for associates — a request the appeals commissioner denied on account of “inflation and increase in the attorneys’ experience.”

The court denied a secondary request for Daniels to reimburse Trump $5,150 for time responding to the most recent appeal, saying the request lacked itemized detail about the law firm’s billing.