Court documents accusing former U.S. President Donald Trump and the late
billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein of raping a 13-year-old girl
identified as Katie Johnson are often shared by Trump's detractors on social
media.
Though the Johnson cases were dismissed or withdrawn, those claims laid
the groundwork for, and lent perceived credibility to, other entirely
unsourced rumors that the former president had settled myriad other lawsuits
with underage assault victims, pointing to evidence of his alleged
"pedophilic disorder."
The Johnson claims, however, originated due to the aggressive efforts of
a publicist using the false name Al Taylor. In 2016, investigative reporters
tied the Taylor persona to a former "Jerry Springer Show" producer, Norm
Lubow. For this story, Lubow confirmed to Snopes he had acted as Taylor and
played a role in filing and promoting the Johnson claims.
Lubow's involvement does not disprove that Johnson is a real person, but
it does show that those claims were aggressively promoted and aided by
someone who has a professional history of using individuals to create
fictional salacious drama, and that is a fact both he, and lawyers working
for the plaintiff, attempted to downplay or hide.