Which allegations against Donald Trump resulted in public settlements or nondisclosure agreements with accompanying court filings?
Executive summary
The clearest public example of allegations against Donald Trump that led to a settlement and explicit court filings overturning nondisclosure provisions is the Jessica Denson class-action settlement that voided 2016 Trump campaign NDAs; other disputes involving Trump have ended in settlements or agreements—some public, some private or sealed—but their terms and legal effects vary and are unevenly documented in court filings [1] [2] [3]. Reporting and trackers show a pattern in which NDAs and out-of-court settlements have been used across business, personal, and political disputes involving Trump, but the degree of public court documentation differs case by case [4] [5] [6].
1. The 2016 campaign NDAs: a public class-action settlement that voided silence agreements
The highest-profile instance where allegations about Trump led to a publicly filed settlement affecting nondisclosure agreements is the suit brought by Jessica Denson and other former 2016 campaign workers, which resulted in a $450,000 settlement and a court filing under which the campaign conceded the NDAs’ non-disclosure and non-disparagement provisions were invalid and unenforceable as to those workers — a deal that was preliminarily approved and later finalized in federal court, explicitly freeing hundreds of staffers from those NDAs [1] [2] [3].
2. Longstanding business-era settlements: the 1970s Fair Housing resolution
Long before the 2016 campaign litigation, Trump and the Trump Organization resolved civil claims in the 1970s related to housing discrimination with an out-of-court settlement that required oversight and remedial terms; reporting summarized in secondary sources notes Trump settled without admitting guilt and that compliance issues surfaced later, but these older settlements are documented primarily in historical accounts rather than contemporary court docket detail in the provided reporting [4].
3. Personal NDAs and divorce litigation: Ivana and other private settlements
Reporting and legal commentary identify several instances where Trump used or litigated NDAs in personal contexts, including an early alleged breach-of-NDA suit against ex-wife Ivana Trump tied to a novel, which was reportedly settled out of court; these matters are described in legal scholarship and media reporting but often lack contemporaneous public court filings with exposed settlement terms in the material cited here [5].
4. Family releases and the Mary Trump litigation: settlement language that limited later claims
Family litigation has also produced settlements that affected later public allegations: coverage and litigation trackers show Mary Trump’s claims were dismissed in part because she had accepted a family settlement in 2001 that released certain claims, a disposition reflected in state-court rulings and tracker summaries, though the precise confidential terms and public nondisclosure elements of that original settlement are matters summarized in the trackers rather than reproduced as full public filings in the sources provided [6] [7].
5. Sexual-misconduct and defamation suits with confidential or partially disclosed outcomes (Summer Zervos, Michael Cohen and others)
Several allegations of sexual misconduct and related defamation suits—such as the Summer Zervos defamation claim and litigation involving Michael Cohen—resulted in litigation activity and, in some instances, reported settlements or case dispositions; trackers and summaries note a 2022 settlement in one matter and other case outcomes, but the reporting here emphasizes that many such settlements were reached with limited public disclosure of terms or remain characterized in secondary trackers rather than fully detailed courtroom filings accessible in the cited sources [6] [7].
6. What the pattern shows and limits of the public record
Taken together, the public record in these sources shows one unambiguous federal-court settlement that revoked campaign NDAs (Denson), multiple historical settlements (e.g., 1970s housing case) and a number of private or sealed settlements tied to personal, business, or defamation claims where public court filings either do not disclose full terms or are summarized in secondary reporting; those differences matter for assessing what allegations “resulted in” public settlements with corresponding court documentation versus those resolved privately or under seal [1] [2] [4] [5] [6].