Easy come easy go, ay Stormy?
President Donald Trump‘s attorney Charles Harder is seeking to collect money owed to him by porn star Stormy Daniels by going after hundreds of thousands of dollars Daniels won after Ohio police officers illegally arrested her at a strip club.
Harder is seeking the money for representing Trump after securing what he called a “total victory” against Daniels.
The drawn-out litigation arose when Trump retweeted an image which purported to show a sketch of a man who Daniels claimed approached her one day and intimidated her on Trump’s alleged behalf or bequest.
Daniels (through her asshat attorney, convicted felon Michael Avenatti) sued Trump for defamation over that tweet. She lost. . . big time.
Trump successfully invoked an anti-SLAPP statute to argue that his public participation speech was not defamatory to Daniels. The judge overseeing that defamation case said the tweet “appear[ed] to be rhetorical hyperbole by a public official involving a public figure,” not actual defamation.
Charles Harder previously said it was “preposterous” that Daniels and Avenatti, believed Trump was entitled to only $25,000 in legal fees. Avenatti also proposed a sanction of only one dollar against Daniels herself.
The judge overseeing the defamation case, S. James Otero ordered that Daniels pay $292,052.33 to compensate Harder’s efforts and a $1,000 penalty sanction herself under the Texas Citizen Participation Act, that state’s anti-SLAPP measure. However, it was not easy for Harder to ultimately collect the amount the judge said was owed to him.
On Monday, Harder filed a motion in the Central District Court of California to get that money — out of Daniels’ Ohio settlement.
To Mr. Trump’s knowledge, Ms. Clifford does not possess any assets in this jurisdiction. Ms. Clifford is a resident of Texas and owns no real property in California. In contrast, she possesses substantial assets in the Southern District of Ohio in the form of the $450,000 in settlement funds being held by that court. Accordingly, Mr. Trump respectfully requests that the Court certify the Attorneys’ Fees Order for registration in the Southern District of Ohio.
