What settlements has Donald Trump or his organizations paid related to sexual misconduct allegations?
Executive summary
Donald Trump and entities tied to him have faced multiple claims of sexual misconduct over decades; the clearest, court-affirmed payment tied directly to such allegations is the E. Jean Carroll verdicts and subsequent damages that together are reported as roughly $88.3 million in awards, with parts of that figure and appeals continuing to be litigated [1] [2]. Other claims resulted in private settlements or withdrawals, including a 1997 civil action by Jill Harth that resolved at least in part as a settlement of a contract claim, and an earlier allegation by Ivana Trump that was later softened after a settlement and nondisclosure arrangements — reporting documents these outcomes but does not provide exhaustive public accounting of all payments [2] [3].
1. The E. Jean Carroll judgments: the single largest public money finding
A New York jury in 2023 found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll and for defaming her, awarding Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages, and subsequent related rulings and calculations have produced reported totals of roughly $83.3 million and an aggregate figure of about $88.3 million that are the subject of appeals and further court proceedings [4] [5] [1] [2]. Court filings and appellate opinions confirm the jury’s finding of sexual abuse under New York law and a defamation finding tied to Trump’s later statements, and legal sources list the awards and the fact of appeals [6] [1]. Reporting notes the distinction between the district trial verdict, later damage calculations, and ongoing appeals, so the precise enforceable payment can change as appeals progress [1] [6].
2. Other settled claims: Jill Harth and Ivana Trump
Reporting indicates at least one other civil claim from the 1990s ended with a settlement: businesswoman Jill Harth sued in 1997 alleging breach of contract and sexual harassment; the materials here state she settled the breach-of-contract claim and forfeited the harassment claim as part of the resolved litigation, but the reporting does not supply a publicly documented dollar amount for that settlement [2]. Similarly, reporting about Ivana Trump shows she once alleged rape during their 1990 divorce proceedings and later “softened” that claim after a settlement and a nondisclosure agreement that constrained her public statements about the marriage — again, reporting documents the settlement context but does not provide an explicit payment figure in the sources provided here [2] [3].
3. Allegations that did not result in public settlements or ended without payment
Several women publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct over the years, and some pursued civil suits that were later withdrawn or did not produce a payment: for example, former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos’ defamation suit followed complaints of sexual misconduct but was withdrawn in 2021, and other accusations have led to publicity and books but not necessarily to verifiable monetary settlements disclosed in these sources [2] [5]. Reporting assembled by outlets like The Guardian and The 19th catalog many allegations, but those compilations do not equate to adjudicated payments and the available sources here stop short of documenting further settled sums [3] [5].
4. Reading the record: what the sources show — and what they don’t
The clearest, court-affirmed financial exposure tied to sexual-assault and defamation findings in the provided reporting is the Carroll-related awards and damage calculations that aggregate in the tens of millions and are currently the subject of appeals and enforcement disputes [1] [6]. Other matters referenced in the reporting — Harth’s resolved pleadings, Ivana’s settlement and NDA, and withdrawn cases like Zervos’ — indicate that Trump or his businesses have at times resolved disputes outside of public verdicts, but the sources here either do not disclose amounts or describe settlements without monetary detail, so no definitive, exhaustive list of payments beyond Carroll can be produced from this record alone [2] [3].
5. Competing narratives and motivations in coverage
Coverage of these cases is politically charged: plaintiffs’ advocates and many news outlets treat the Carroll verdict and other allegations as part of a pattern of reported conduct, while Trump and his supporters call the claims politically motivated or deny them; journalists and courts have weighed testimonial evidence, contemporaneous records and admissible patterns of conduct under rules allowing prior-act evidence in sexual-assault litigation — reporting documents both the jury findings and the denials and appeals [4] [1] [2]. Given those opposing frames and the legal appeals still pending in key matters, the factual ledger of payments is clearest for the Carroll-related awards and less so for other claims where public payment records are not provided in the sources cited [6] [2].