As Donald Trump was in New York for a date with legal jeopardy, a judge in Los Angeles quietly granted him a substantial legal victory.
The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the former president on Tuesday, ordering adult film star Stormy Daniels to pay $121,972 in legal fees for a failed defamation suit.
The ruling is not legally connected with the Manhattan district attorney's investigation that led Trump to be charged with 34 felony counts on Tuesday. But it does stem from the same event: Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, then was paid by Trump's legal team to avoid going public with the story ahead of the 2016 presidential election.