Former adult film actor Stormy Daniels has been able to raise a staggering sum of money through crowdfunding platforms to help pay off legal fees she owes after her 2018 defamation case against former President Donald Trump was dismissed by a court.
Two weeks ago, Dwayne Crawford, a friend of Daniels’ and her former manager, set up a fundraiser campaign on the GoFundMe site to help her raise the money needed to pay the legal fees that she owes to Trump. In that short period of time, more than 20,000 contributions have been made to the campaign, which has raised more than $1 million.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, owes $600,000 in legal fees to Trump over her failed lawsuit.
In a statement that she posted to the GoFundMe page, Daniels wrote:
“For over 6 years, I have been fighting to speak the truth … and paying the price for it. Part of this battle resulted in attorney fees being automatically awarded after being denied my day in court.”
In April of 2018, Daniels released a sketch of one man who she said threatened her in 2011 in Las Vegas. The man, according to Daniels, told her to “leave Trump alone.”
The threat happened five years after the former adult film star had an alleged affair with Trump back in 2006.
Trump responded to that sketch on the social media platform Twitter, saying that her claims were a “total con job” and saying the man was “nonexistent.”
Just a few weeks after that Twitter tirade, Daniels sued Trump in federal court.
That suit was thrown out in October of 2018 by U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, though. He ruled that the tweets Trump said amounted to what he called a “hyperbolic statement.”
In addition, Otero said Trump enjoyed protections from the First Amendment in regard to his statements.
Daniels attempted to appeal that decision four years later, arguing her lawyer at the time, Michael Avenatti, filed the lawsuit “without my permission and against my rules.”
But, a judge ruled against her then, too, which meant that she had to pay all legal fees that were associated with that case.
Now, it seems that her supporters, fans and possibly even outright Trump haters are going to be footing that bill. As Daniels wrote recently:
“I have been given the greatest gift because those attorney fees are NOT coming from me! Complete strangers have generously come together in a powerful stance and donated to cover it instead.”
Once she pays the judgment that has been levied against her, Daniels said she’d used whatever money is left over to relocate herself and her family to what she called a safe place.
She needs to do this, she said, because she’s had “countless death threats” following Trump being found guilty of multiple felony charges in Manhattan court at the end of May.
