LOS ANGELES—Late last year, AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels reached a $450,000 cash settlement with the city of Columbus, Ohio, over her improper 2018 arrest at a strip club there. Very quickly after the settlement announcement, both Donald Trump and Daniels’ former lawyer Michael Avenatti filed with the court to take what they said were unpaid legal fees out of that sum.
Earlier this month, however, a federal judge slapped down both Trump and Avenatti, ruling that the city may finally cut Daniels a check for the $450K, and that she may keep it, according to a Law.com report.
In Trump’s case, a federal judge in 2018 threw out a defamation lawsuit filed by Avenatti and Daniels, saying that Daniels would be required to cover nearly $300,000 in Trump’s legal fees as a result of the dismissal.
But federal Judge Michael Watson of the Southern District of Ohio ruled that Trump had no legal claim on Daniels’ Columbus settlement cash, because the federal judge in California who ruled on the defamation lawsuit never issued a final judgment on the fees.
Daniels’ current lawyer, Clark Brewster, told Law.com that Trump and his attorneys apparently “don’t know the difference [between] what a judgment is or not, based on pretty simply black letter law.”
As for Avenatti, he sued Daniels shortly after the settlement over her July 2018 arrest was announced, claiming that she owes him “millions” in unpaid legal fees — though he also acknowledged that his agreement with her signed in February of 2018 required only a $100 up-front payment.
Watson turned away Avenatti’s attempted claim to seize Daniels’ settlement cash, saying in his ruling that the now-disgraced lawyer “fails to cite to any legal support justifying his request.”
But even after her court victory, Daniels made news again this past weekend, claiming via her Twitter account that a “child predator” had attempted to abduct her daughter.
Daniels wrote that when she attempted to report the attempted kidnapping, police refused to take her report because she lacked “valid ID” — though she presented a passport.
“I shouldn't need any ID to report a child predator,” she wrote. “They were immensely unhelpful and 24 hours later NO UPDATE.”
