Adult film star Stormy Daniels has lost her appeal in her failed defamation suit against Donald Trump, leaving her owing almost $300,000 (£226,000) in legal fees to the former president.

Daniels made headlines previously for receiving $130,000 in hush money from Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, before the 2016 presidential election to stay quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she says she had with the former president.

Mr Trump has denied the encounter happened.

The former president hailed the ruling by the appeals court he often bashed as president, calling it “a total and complete victory and vindication for, and of me”.

But Daniels remained defiant, tweeting in reaction to the court judgment: “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”

I will go to jail before I pay a penny

Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti filed the defamation suit against Trump in 2018.

Last month Avenatti was convicted of cheating Stormy Daniels out of nearly $300,000 (then £222,000) in book proceeds.

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Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said in a statement that Avenatti had filed the suit “without my permission and against my wishes”.

She added that, once it was filed, Trump’s lawyers “overwhelmed” Avenatti and she was left “the victim of an attorney’s fee award”.

After news of the hush money payment became public, Daniels said she was menaced and warned to keep quiet about the alleged encounter in 2011, when a man approached her while she was with her infant daughter in Las Vegas and told her to “leave Trump alone.”

She said the man then looked at her daughter and said: “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mum.”

Daniels and Avenatti released a sketch of the man in 2018, which was mocked on Twitter by then-president Trump.

“A sketch years later about a non-existent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!” Mr Trump tweeted.

Daniels’ lawsuit called Mr Trump’s tweet “false and defamatory”.

It added that Mr Trump knew his statement would be widely read and that Ms Daniels “would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage as a result”.

A federal judge in California, sided with Mr Trump and found that the tweet “constitutes ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States”.

The 9th Circuit upheld that ruling on Friday, finding in part that Daniels had waited too long to challenge the lower court’s ruling.

In her statement Tuesday, Daniels blamed Avenatti for that delay.

Daniels’ new attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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