A federal judge has ruled a former spokesperson for Donald Trump needs to pay $42,000 in legal fees after a federal appeals court rejected his defamation case against a media outlet.
Jason Miller, who worked previously on the Trump campaign communications team, has been ordered to cover the costs for Gizmodo Media by a US District Court, according to a ruling dated 18 May.
It comes after Mr Miller attempted to sue the website Splinter News, a brand owned by Gizmodo, for a story they ran in 2018, with the headline “Court Docs Allege Ex-Trump Staffer Drugged Woman Got Pregnant With ‘Abortion Pill’” for $100 million.
The story details a divorce court filing by A.J Delgado, who he met during the campaign in 2016, which contained allegations that he surreptitiously gave a woman who he had slept with a pill to induce an abortion.
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Mr Miller denied the allegations at the time, saying there was “no validity to the false accusations.”
“I will clear my name in this matter and seek to hold Ms. Delgado, Splinter and anyone else involved in spreading these lies legally accountable,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter.
The defamation lawsuit was first rejected in 2019 after it was found to be an accurate report of the contents of the court filing. The latest appeal court ruling was shared on Twitter by Roger Sollenberger, a reporter from the Daily Beast.
This article was amended on 2 June 2021 to remove an inaccurate reference to A.J Delgado being Jason Miller’s wife. They were never married.
