Donald Trump wins $5m in Miss Universe defamation case

Donald Trump has won a $5 million suit against Sheena Monnin, the former Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012 who resigned after publicly alleging that the Miss USA 2012 pageant was rigged.

Monnin competed in June's Miss USA 2012 contest but resigned from her position as Miss Pennsylvania USA 2012 days after the Miss USA pageant was held, claiming that the Miss Universe Organization, which oversees Miss USA, is 'fraudulent, lacking in morals, inconsistent, and in many ways trashy'.

She stated that a fellow contestant had seen a list of the names of the top five winners before they were announced and decided to resign when those exact five were named the finalists during the show's telecast.

But Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, denied Monnin's claims stating, 'We're going to be suing her now because she made a charge and she said that it's fixed, and now it turns out that it wasn't fixed she suffers from a thing called loser's remorse'.

But it just might have been more than that for Monnin as E! reports that she had actually taken issue with the pageant's policy of admitting transgendered contestants.

'In an email to state pageant organizers, she cited the Miss Universe Organization's policy regarding transgendered contestants, implemented two months ago, as the reason for her resignation', a rep for Miss Universe told E! News. Only then did she start singing the 'pageant rigging' tune.

Trump filed an arbitration action for defamation, seeking 'significant damages' from Monnin for smearing the organization; with a New York court ruling an award of $5m in damages.