Stormy Daniels and lawyer Michael Avenatti leave the Daniel P. Moynihan Courthouse in Manhattan. (Photo: David Handschuh/NYLJ)

Both President Donald Trump and prominent lawyer Michael Avenatti have been turned back, in one federal decision in Ohio, in their separate bids to grab chunks of a $450,000 settlement won by adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her 2018 false-arrest suit against the city of Columbus.

In an eight-page order, U.S. District Judge Michael Watson of the Southern District of Ohio denied Trump's notice of registered foreign judgment seeking $293,052 of Daniels' settlement, and tossed aside Avenatti's notice of attorney lien seeking allegedly unpaid attorney fees from his previous, unrelated representation of Daniels.

Watson, at the end of his order, also ruled that his clerk can now release the $450,000 to Daniels and her lawyers.

Trump entered the Ohio federal suit based on attorney fees he was awarded by a California federal judge in 2018 after he'd dismissed a Daniels-launched defamation suit against Trump.

In that suit, Daniels had sued Trump for defamation citing an April 2018 Trump tweet that labeled "a total con job" her statements about a man who allegedly threatened her and who she'd said was in some way linked to Trump, according to news reports and Watson's order. (Daniels' actual name is Stephanie Clifford.)

U.S. District Judge James Otero in California dismissed the suit on free-speech grounds and awarded the president $293,052 in attorney fees that haven't been paid, say news reports and Watson's opinion. Daniels has reportedly appealed attorney fees order in the California case.

But Watson, in his opinion handed down Tuesday, said Trump has no current interest in Daniels' $450,000 settlement because he was trying to collect based on an attorney fees award that has never been reduced to a final judgment. Moreover, Trump, represented by Beverly Hills-based attorney Charles Harder, was aware that Otero's clerk had attempted to make the award final and later realized that he was in error when doing so, said Watson.

"Trump argues that the 'clerk's conclusion [that he was in error] is erroneous,'" writes Watson, "and he has notified this court that he has moved to certify the attorney's fees order for registration in the underlying Central District of California case."

He also "seeks a stay in this court until his motion is resolved," Watson notes.

But "here, the plain language of the statute" that is relevant—which the judge said is 28 U.S.C. Section 1963, permitting a party to register certain federal judgments in other districts—"dictates the outcome," Watson says.

"Trump is glossing over a key requirement—how to register the foreign judgment in the first place," the judge also says, before adding that "because the Central District of California's Clerk of Court has rescinded its certification of judgment, there is no judgment to register under §1963."

Watson also denied Trump's motion for a stay.

On Thursday, Clark Brewster, Daniels' lawyer in the Ohio case, said in a phone interview that Trump "litigates aggressively in numerous venues and my discovery thus far"—he said, based on handling multiple matters involving Daniels and Trump—"is that that cases I've had involving him and Ms. Daniels are meritless."

"In this case," involving the attempt to collect money from Daniels' Columbus settlement, "if they [Trump and Harder] don't know the difference [between] what a judgment is or not, based on pretty simply black letter law, you can imagine how difficult it is where there is a complex case."

In turning back Avenatti's claim to part of Daniels' $450,000, Watson said Avenatti had withdrawn his notice of attorney lien in the Ohio case because he'd begun arbitrating with Daniels over his allegedly owed attorney fees. But, explained Watson, he still argues in Ohio for a stay of his claim in Watson's court until the arbitration is finished.

"Although Avenatti argues that he is entitled a portion of the settlement funds 'under California law,' he fails to cite to any legal support justifying his request for a stay of this case until he and plaintiff finish arbitration," Watson wrote.

Avenatti could not be reached for comment Thursday.