Stormy Daniels is ordered to pay Trump $120k – on day he is charged over $130k payment to her

The ruling in California marked a minor legal victory for Trump on the same day that his alleged affair with Daniels helped land him with a staggering 34 felony charges

Stormy Daniels has been ordered to pay Donald Trump $120,000 – on the same day that the former president was charged in connection to a $130,000 payment to her.

In a California courtroom 3,000 miles from Manhattan Criminal Court where Mr Trump was arraigned on 34 felony charges on Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the adult film star to pay more than $121,000 for his legal fees.

The fees come on top of the more than $500,000 she was previously ordered to pay Mr Trump.

This comes after Ms Daniels lost a defamation lawsuit against the former president back in 2018 after he branded her claims that she was threatened by an unidentified man in a parking lot over their alleged affair a “total con job”.

That year, District Judge S. James Otero sided with Mr Trump in the civil lawsuit claiming that his comments had been protected by the First Amendment.

On Tuesday, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals once again sided with the former president ruling that Ms Daniels must pay the legal fees after Mr Trump’s attorneys “reasonably spent” more than 183 hours on the case.

Ms Daniels appeared undeterred by the ruling giving a spicy response to a Twitter user who asked her: “How much do you owe Donald ? Hundreds of thousands, right? Gotta wonder if your husband dreams of all the real hot, sexy women he could have had.”

“He doesn’t have to dream about it. He’s done over 5k sex scenes with some of the sexiest women on earth,” Ms Daniels fired back.

She has previously said that she “will go to jail before I pay a penny” to the former president.

The ruling in California marked a minor legal victory for Mr Trump on the same day that his alleged affair with Ms Daniels helped land him with a staggering 34 felony charges.

In a historic day for America, Mr Trump became the first current or former president to ever be indicted on criminal charges.

The one-term president was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal illegal activity connected to his 2016 presidential campaign.

The “catch and kill” campaign allegedly involved Mr Trump and his then-attorney Michael Cohen making hush money payments during the 2016 run to suppress negative information about him by silencing individuals over alleged affairs he had with women .

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels is at the centre of Trump’s charges (Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Ms Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.

Mr Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the charging documents read.

Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records. Mr Trump surrendered to Manhattan authorities on Tuesday afternoon and was officially arrested on criminal charges.

He then appeared in court for his arraignment before Judge Juan Merchan – the same judge who sentenced the Trump Organization and its CFO last year.

Cutting a glum figure, he defiantly pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

After flying back to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the former president launched into a speech railing against the criminal charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge – in a move that could risk him being placed under a gag order.

Despite much speculation, Judge Merchan did not issue a gag order on Tuesday but did warn Mr Trump not to incite violence towards people involved in the case.