Why Does Stormy Daniels Owe Trump Money? The Ex-President Is Still Waiting For His $560k Payday

The years-long legal feud between adult film star Stormy Daniels and former President Donald Trump is proof that when it rains, it, well, storms. While most of Trump's historic hush money case centers around six-figure payments made to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, Daniels has found herself on the hook for an even higher payment — this time, owed to Trump.

On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, Daniels confirmed to Trump's attorney, Susan Necheles, that the adult film actor owed the former president roughly $560,000 in legal fees. When asked if she had made any payments toward this debt at the time of her testimony, Daniels said, "I've chosen not to pay while it's still pending" (via CNN). Two years prior, in 2022, Daniels took a much more decisive stance on X, formerly Twitter, writing, "I will go to jail before I pay a penny."

So, why is a former porn star being ordered to pay a former president with a $7-billion-dollar net worth over half a million dollars? Indeed, given the duration of the Daniels-Trump feud and the ex-POTUS' several other criminal trials, it can be difficult to keep track of who owes what to whom and why. So, we've broken down the salacious legalese into layperson's terms.

Although Stormy Daniels is connected to the 2024 criminal trial centered around whether former President Donald Trump paid to keep information from the public that might've affected his viability as the 2016 presidential nominee, the $560,000 payment Daniel owes the ex-POTUS is not legally connected to this trial. This debt stems from a defamation case Daniels made against Trump in 2018.

While visiting ABC's "The View" in April of that year, Daniels revealed that, in 2011, she and her daughter had been confronted by a man in a parking lot who threatened Daniels to remain silent about her alleged affair with Trump. Daniels recalled the man saying, "Oh, it's a beautiful little girl, would be a shame if something happened to her mom. Forget about the story, leave Mr. Trump alone" (via Associated Press). Daniels released a sketch of the man, and one day later, Trump took to X to share his thoughts on the purported encounter.

"A sketch years later about a nonexistent man," Trump wrote. "A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!" In response, Daniels filed a defamation suit against the then-president, marking one of the most significant developments in the early stages of Trump and Daniels' public battle. Unfortunately for Daniels, she lost the case and was ordered to reimburse Trump for his legal fees. In December 2018, that figure was around $294,000.

U.S. District Judge James Otero dismissed Stormy Daniels' defamation case over the former president's tweet, classifying Donald Trump's remarks as "rhetorical hyperbole" and, thus, protected by the First Amendment. Trump's then-attorneys requested Daniels pay almost $390,000 in legal fees and an additional $390,000 in sanctions to deter the former adult film star from filing any similar cases in the future. Otero reduced the legal fees by a quarter and ruled Daniels pay only $1,000 in sanctions, bringing her grand owed total to $294,000.

Daniels appealed the ruling in 2022 but this, too, was denied and only served to increase the amount of legal fees she owed Trump. (Although, in a relatively small victory for Daniels, the court rejected Trump's legal team's request for Daniels to reimburse them an additional $5,150 due to a lack of itemized detail explaining this specific figure.) On April 4, 2023, Trump's attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, tweeted, "Our form obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in [Trump's] favor in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels."

When asked during the 2024 hush money trial if she intended to pay the hefty fines, Daniels replied, "I don't know" (via CNN). Indeed, it seems like no one is leaving this trial unscathed — even former first lady Melania Trump, whose marriage to Donald is reportedly being rocked by the ongoing case.