Stormy Daniels has lost a defamation case against Donald Trump and has been ordered to pay the president’s legal fees. The adult film actress sued Trump after he said a composite sketch of a man she said threatened her to keep quiet about their alleged affair was a “total con job.”
The US president tweeted that the man was “nonexistent” and that Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, was playing the “fake news media for fools.”
He retweeted a side-by-side photo comparing the sketch with a photo of Daniels’ husband.
In an order handed down Monday, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero said Trump’s statement was protected speech under the First Amendment.
A judgment released in the Central District of California court, referring to Ms Daniels as the plaintiff, states: “The Court agrees with Mr Trump’s argument because the tweet in question constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States.
“The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement.”
The judgment defined “rhetorical hyperbole” as “extravagant exaggeration employed for rhetorical effect” and said Mr Trump’s tweet had “an incredulous tone, suggesting that the content of his tweet was not meant to be understood as a literal statement about Plaintiff”.
“Instead, Mr Trump sought to use language to challenge Plaintiff’s account of her affair and the threat that she purportedly received in 2011.
As the United States Supreme Court has held, a published statement that is ‘pointed, exaggerated, and heavily laden with emotional rhetoric and moral outrage’ cannot constitute a defamatory statement.”
The amount Ms Daniels will have to pay Mr Trump has not yet been decided, Charles Harder, the president’s lawyer, said.
Ms Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti tweeted to say his client would be appealing the judgment, adding he is “confident of a reversal”.
Ms Daniels, who in August pulled out of an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother following a row with producers, alleges she was paid to remain silent over claims of an affair with Mr Trump.
Mr Trump denies he had an affair but acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for a 130,000 US dollar (£98,000) payment made to Ms Daniels.