LOS ANGELES _ President Donald Trump wants Stormy Daniels to pay $342,000 for his attorney fees after defeating her defamation lawsuit.
The adult-movie star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford "filed this action, not because it had any merit, but instead for the ulterior purposes of raising her media profile, engaging in political attacks against the president by herself and her attorney, who has appeared on more than 150 national television news interviews attacking the president and now is exploring a run for the presidency himself in 2020," Trump said in a filing Monday in Los Angeles federal court.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero this month threw out the lawsuit over a tweet by Trump in which he accused Clifford of "a total con job," saying the president was engaging in free speech. The judge awarded Trump "reasonable" attorneys' fees.
"We now know that Trump believes in legalizing marijuana," Clifford's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said in an email. "This request is nothing compared to what he will owe my client" from her main case challenging the validity of a $130,000 "hush payment" deal she struck with Trump's longtime fixer Michael Cohen before the 2016 presidential election.
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