Bad News For Stormy Daniels, Judge Might Toss Her Defamation Suit Against Trump

For those who might’ve forgotten, Stormy Daniels sued Trump for defamation. It was all over this tweet:

A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

Well, bad news for Stormy. It sounds like the judge is considering tossing the entire suit. He seems to be concluding that Trump’s tweet was an opinion and therefore protected under the First Amendment.

Judge S. James Otero said in U.S. District Court that a tweet the president wrote in April appears to be “rhetorical hyperbole” and speech protected under the First Amendment.

He fears there would be significant implications if he allowed the case to move forward.

“To allow the complaint to go forward and to have one consider this to be defamatory in the context it was made would have a chilling effect,” Otero said.

Attorney Ken White who blogs about the case and talks about it on the podcast “All the President’s Lawyers” said he thinks Otero wrote a tentative ruling that he would finalize and issue soon.

If Daniels’ defamation case if thrown out it would be similar to a ruling by a New York state judge who dismissed a lawsuit by a political strategist who claimed her reputation was trashed when Trump falsely said she had “begged” for a campaign job and called her a “dummy” on Twitter, White said.

Michael Avenatti is determined to “fight” back. He’ll appeal. Avenatti also tried to say that Trump is a hypocrite for hiding behind the First Amendment, since he attacks the #FakeNews media all the time. Apparently, in Avenatti’s world, you are NOT ALLOWED to call out the press for lying repeatedly.

“I witnessed something here today that I never thought I’d witness,” Avenatti said. “That is: Donald Trump having a lawyer stand up in a federal court and espouse on his behalf the virtues and how important the First Amendment is in America. This is the same Donald Trump that has crapped all over the First Amendment and the news media for years.”

Morons. Morons everywhere.

h/t The AP