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Which sexual misconduct lawsuits against Donald Trump were settled privately and what were the terms?
Executive summary
Reporting in the provided sources documents some high‑profile sexual‑misconduct civil cases involving Donald Trump, including a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll with a $5 million award and related rulings that together amounted to roughly $88.3 million in damages in Carroll’s two suits [1][2]. Available sources do not comprehensively list every alleged sexual‑misconduct suit that was settled privately or detail the settlement terms for each such matter [3].
1. What the sources explicitly document: the E. Jean Carroll civil verdicts
The clearest, litigated outcome shown in the provided material is E. Jean Carroll’s litigation: a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages in one case, and the two Carroll suits together resulted in about $88.3 million in damages [1][2]. Those sources describe appeals and further court filings — for example, Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the $5 million verdict — but they do not describe a private settlement of Carroll’s cases because those matters were resolved by jury verdicts and post‑verdict appeals rather than by confidential out‑of‑court settlements in the materials provided [1][2].
2. What the sources say about other allegations and claimed private settlements
The assembled reporting and fact‑checks in the provided set discuss numerous allegations over many years and also address viral claims that Trump paid large sums (e.g., $35 million) to settle child‑rape claims. Snopes’s analysis says that the sweeping claim that Trump “paid at least $35 million to settle most” of such claims mixes unproven allegations and lacks corroboration, and it notes that some purported lawsuits (for example, one by someone using the pseudonym “Katie Johnson”) were dismissed or withdrawn — undermining the idea of a clear pattern of routine private settlements totaling that figure in the provided reporting [3]. In short, these sources push back on broad internet claims about multiple secret multi‑million‑dollar settlements [3].
3. Limits of the available reporting: private settlements are not comprehensively documented here
The available sources do not provide a comprehensive catalog of every sexual‑misconduct allegation against Trump nor an itemized list of private settlements and their terms. For several widely circulated claims, the fact‑check source explicitly says evidence is absent or disputed [3]. The Wikipedia entries included summarize many allegations and case outcomes but do not, in the excerpts provided, enumerate confidential settlement terms for multiple plaintiffs [4][1]. Therefore, this set of sources cannot support definitive statements that a particular set of suits “were settled privately” with specific monetary or other terms beyond what is documented publicly [3][1].
4. Disputed claims and the role of fact‑checking
Fact‑checking in the provided material cautions against accepting viral lists of secret settlements at face value. Snopes concludes that some claims are unproven and that some named lawsuits were dismissed or withdrawn, which weakens assertions that large aggregated settlement totals are factual [3]. That reflects an important journalistic distinction: public court judgments (like Carroll’s) are verifiable, while alleged private settlements — unless reported by reliable outlets or revealed in court filings — remain unconfirmed in the material you supplied [3][1].
5. Competing viewpoints and legal posture
The sources show competing narratives: plaintiffs and their lawyers have pursued courtroom remedies (as in Carroll’s case), while Trump and his attorneys have denied allegations and appealed adverse rulings, arguing lack of evidence in filings to higher courts [2][1]. Some outlets and compendia collected numerous allegations and settlements in broad lists, but those compilations are not corroborated here and appear alongside fact‑checks that question their completeness or accuracy [5][6][3].
6. What you can do next to get precise settlement terms
If you need authoritative, item‑by‑item confirmation of private settlement terms, the current sources do not supply that level of detail; seek primary court records, settlement agreements, or reporting from major outlets that cite such documents. The provided set shows where verdicts exist (Carroll) and where fact‑checkers advise caution about aggregated online claims [1][3].
Limitations: This analysis relies only on the supplied excerpts and linked summaries; those do not comprehensively document confidential settlement agreements or every allegation referenced in wider reporting [3][1].