What We Know About Origins of Trump Little one Rape Allegations

In September 2024, outdated claims that former U.S. President Donald Trump dedicated acts of sexual violence in opposition to minors within the Nineteen Nineties reemerged on social media platforms together with X and Reddit, sharing this time alongside a brand new meme to illustrating the allegation: 

This allegation, since its origin in late 2016, has all the time been supported by by images of courtroom paperwork describing graphic rapes allegedly perpetrated by Trump and convicted intercourse offender/financier Jeffrey Epstein. Snopes has coated these paperwork a number of occasions, together with once they went viral in July 2024. 

These courtroom paperwork are a part of a lawsuit that alleges in 1994 an affiliate of Epstein recruited a 13-year-old lady, initially recognized as Katie Johnson, to grow to be his intercourse slave. Epstein raped the lady, the paperwork declare, and in addition compelled her to have intercourse with Trump on a number of events in each New York and Florida. The filings additionally embrace testimony from an nameless witness corroborating the allegations.

These photos precisely present actual courtroom paperwork, however not ones linked to the continued launch of Epstein grand jury recordsdata. As an alternative, these allegations have been made in late April 2016, and Snopes first coated the courtroom filings in June 2016.

The written criticism included graphic accounts of the alleged rapes, together with the declare that Trump refused to put on a condom and as a substitute threw cash on the lady and instructed her to make use of it for an abortion.

The case was filed in U.S. District Courts in California and New York. Although these lawsuits have been dismissed or withdrawn, the claims attributed to Johnson laid the groundwork for, and lent perceived credibility to, different completely unsourced rumors that the previous president had settled myriad different lawsuits with underage assault victims, pointing to proof of an alleged “pedophilic dysfunction.”

Memes referencing that latter collection of claims, which originated in a subscription-only weblog submit from a conspiracy theorist with a historical past of false claims, reemerged following this current dump of “Epstein docs.” As Snopes mentioned in August 2020, there was — and stays — no foundation to the claims stemming from these rumors.

Within the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, these two classes of kid rape and abuse claims have typically been merged right into a single assertion about Trump settling lawsuits associated to the purported sexual assault of a number of minors:

Regardless of their centrality to the “Trump is a pedophile” narrative and to allegations mainstream media has been “ignoring” them, investigations by reporters at Jezebel and The Guardian discovered quite a few pink flags within the 2016 courtroom filings and story. Amongst these pink flags was proof that tied the case to an aggressive media marketing campaign initiated by a person calling himself Al Taylor.

Taylor’s story, as instructed to Jezebel, was “that he’d heard Katie’s story for the primary time [in 2014], after assembly her at a celebration” and that “as a former psychology main in school and actuality TV producer … individuals have been all the time telling him issues unsolicited, even now that he is retired from tv.” To Jezebel, he claimed (without proof) to have labored as a producer for “Inside Version.”

Within the months earlier than the 2016 U.S. presidential election, nonetheless, The Guardian connected the Taylor persona to a former producer for “The Jerry Springer Present” named Norm Lubow. In 2016, Lubow strongly denied to Jezebel and The Guardian that he was Taylor.

Nonetheless, when Snopes spoke to Lubow in July 2024, he confirmed that he was, in reality, Taylor and stated he did help the accuser in her first lawsuit and in selling the claims inside it to journalists. Thomas Meagher, an lawyer who represented somebody figuring out herself as Johnson in 2016, declined to remark for this story. On this story, Snopes exhibits how Lubow’s involvement stays a key pink flag undermining the Johnson claims.

A Historical past of the Trump-Epstein Allegations

Since Donald Trump entered the presidential race in 2015, opponents have highlighted his connections to Epstein. The 2 ran in the same Palm Seashore social circles within the Nineteen Nineties, they usually appeared collectively in video from a 1992 social gathering at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership:

In 2006, Epstein turned the topic of native and federal investigations into alleged intercourse and human trafficking probes, and in 2008 — later reporting would reveal — he was given a “sweetheart” deal by federal prosecutors in Florida that allowed him to plead responsible to crimes involving just one sufferer.

Starting in 2015, nonetheless, particulars of the possibly giant variety of victims not a celebration to the plea deal have been reported, together with tales of Epstein taking giant cadres of ladies to events with powerful men and testimony from quite a few girls who say they have been lured into Epstein’s orbit and sexual servitude with guarantees of fame and connection. Towards this backdrop, in addition to the rise of Trump throughout the GOP primaries, the Johnson claims first turned public.

On April 26, 2016 — apparently and not using a lawyer — an individual recognized as Johnson filed a lawsuit in opposition to Trump and Epstein in a California U.S. District Court docket. In line with the criticism, Epstein trafficked Johnson as a intercourse slave in 1994 after one other lady recruited her at a bus cease when she was 13. She wrote that she was compelled to sexually gratify each Epstein and Trump on a number of events.

The gossip web site Radar On-line revealed a short story on April 28, 2016, noting the submitting, however even it was skeptical, highlighting the truth that the particular person submitting the declare had given apparently bogus contact data, utilizing the tackle of a foreclosed home whose proprietor had not too long ago died.

Certainly, that California case was dropped for failing to state a correct declare underneath the regulation it cited. Filings point out that the courtroom was unable to contact the one that filed the criticism on the tackle she supplied or find a forwarding tackle for her. A couple of months later, nonetheless, an nameless Jane Doe filed a virtually equivalent case in a New York U.S. District Court docket.

For the New York case, Doe was represented by a New Jersey patent lawyer, Thomas Meagher, who later confirmed to information retailers that his shopper was the identical one who filed the Johnson claims. By then, a extensively shared video of a lady recognized as Johnson, proven with a pixelated face and disguised voice, accompanied press protection of her case.

Quite a few journalists, advocates and political operatives had tried to get, or had been promised, in-person entry to Johnson. These guarantees by no means panned out. Steve Baer, a conservative mega-donor whose intensive electronic mail contacts helped to push the claims, for instance, told Jezebel that he by no means met the accuser in particular person, regardless of many makes an attempt.

Just one outlet, the now defunct millennial-targeting web site Revelist, scored any type of interview with the accuser. In July 2016, after first being promised an in-person assembly by Meagher, Revelist’s Emily Shugerman needed to accept a convention name that left her questioning whether or not Johnson actually existed. “I do not know if the Katie Johnson I spoke to is identical lady who Trump allegedly raped in 1994, or if that lady even exists,” she wrote.

The subsequent month, Lisa Bloom, a outstanding lawyer recognized for preventing high-profile sexual abuse circumstances, helped manage and publicize a information convention at which Johnson was to look and description her allegations in opposition to Trump. However the accuser backed out on the final minute, leaving “a room stuffed with ready reporters,” as Vox described, with out solutions — and dropped the New York case days later.

These 2016 allegations didn’t unfold far regardless of being coated at the moment. This was partly for the explanations outlined above, and in addition because of the aggressive manner by which the story was being promoted to the press.

To that finish, a big issue inhibiting large-scale protection of the Johnson claims was that journalists figured out {that a} former “Jerry Springer” producer with a historical past of trolling the media had been a key participant in selling them from their inception and performed a job in crafting the preliminary California submitting.

This significant backstory could have been misplaced within the drama of the ultimate months of the 2016 election and Trump’s shock victory, and this context is usually ignored when the Johnson claims are referenced within the context of the 2024 presidential election, the purported launch of “Epstein recordsdata,” or in assist of anonymously sourced claims of serial sexual abuse of minors by Trump.

Norm Lubow and the ‘Al Taylor’ Marketing campaign

As Jezebel’s Anna Merlan reported in June 2016, the marketing campaign to alert information retailers to the claims in opposition to Trump started almost a yr earlier than the California submitting. In August 2015, Gawker — which was, on the time, a part of the identical media group as Jezebel — was approached by a self-described PR consultant named Al Taylor. “I’ve bought some good information on Donald Trump for you,” Taylor instructed the outlet.   

Taylor’s contact with Gawker apparently ceased by March 2016, and Gawker “by no means bought something, or revealed any tales, associated to the information that it obtained from Taylor,” wrote Merlan, who was uninvolved with Taylor’s preliminary outreach. The California criticism was filed a month later, receiving restricted press protection.

That preliminary submitting garnered sufficient consideration, nonetheless, to draw the curiosity of attorneys who helped file a lawsuit in New York, and of political operatives like Baer, who pushed the claims aggressively. Although central to the promotion of her story, these people had, at finest, restricted entry to the accuser, and that entry was largely managed by way of Taylor.

In July 2016, primarily based on a number of traces of compelling proof, The Guardian’s Jon Swaine linked the particular person utilizing the identify Al Taylor to former “Jerry Springer Present” producer Lubow, who reportedly staged the fights for which the present turned well-known. Lubow by no means confirmed the allegations to The Guardian.

As an alternative, when Swaine quizzed Taylor on his true identification, he replied: “Simply be warned, we’ll sue you if we do not like what you write. We’ll sue your a**, personal your a** and personal your newspaper’s a** as effectively, punk.” When Merlan confronted Taylor on the allegation that he was truly Lubow he told her — texting from the cellphone quantity listed as Johnson’s within the preliminary sexual assault criticism — to “suck my d***, b****.”

Snopes reached out to Lubow by way of an electronic mail related to the Al Taylor persona and thru a Fb profile of a “Norm Lubow” who described himself as a previous phase producer for “The Jerry Springer Present.” By way of each channels, we requested whether or not Taylor and Lubow have been the identical particular person and whether or not that particular person performed a job in crafting the April 2016 criticism filed in opposition to Trump.

Lubow finally confirmed to Snopes through a blocked cellphone quantity that he was, certainly, Taylor and that he had, underneath this pseudonym, helped the accuser along with her first authorized submitting, with the video that accompanied her claims and with selling these allegations to the press. He claimed to Snopes that he wasn’t attempting to be tough through the use of the identify Al Taylor, however that previous media smears leveled in opposition to him by “The Jerry Springer Present” necessitated the brand new identify.

Lubow’s involvement within the case is related, in Snopes’ view, as a result of Lubow has pushed false tales about celebrities to the press up to now, and since considered one of Lubow’s fundamental skilled jobs was, different retailers have reported, to make up salacious tales for tv segments, to enlist individuals to fake that they have been gamers in these tales and to maintain them from telling anybody it was all a lie.

Lubow was referring to a 1998 scandal by which former friends of the present alleged that the over-the-top and sometimes violent segments they participated in have been completely scripted. In a report aired by the investigative information program “20/20,” a number of former “Springer” friends named Lubow because the producer who recruited individuals for quite a few completely made-up segments.

Lubow first made a reputation for himself within the late Eighties as a pro-marijuana “revolutionary” character named Rev. Bud Inexperienced who ceaselessly appeared on tv speak exhibits — together with “Springer” — solely to be “kicked off” after lighting up.

Lubow additionally reportedly has a historical past of pushing false tales about celebrities to information retailers. As described by The Guardian in 2016, “Lubow was linked to a contentious declare, raised within the 1998 documentary film Kurt and Courtney, that Courtney Love supplied a fellow musician $50,000 to homicide her husband, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.” The New York Put up reported that, in 1995, Lubow was behind a tabloid newspaper story alleging that O.J. Simpson purchased illicit medication on the day Nicole Brown was killed.

Within the Revelist interview, the particular person figuring out herself as Johnson defined that “Al Taylor” — i.e., Lubow — had performed a pivotal position in serving to her craft the criticism in opposition to Trump. “She stated that they had been launched by way of a mutual buddy, who urged her to go to Taylor with the story,” Revelist reported. “The buddy believed Taylor had the sources to carry her accusations to gentle.”

Lubow’s involvement doesn’t show that Johnson’s claims are false or that she doesn’t exist. Nonetheless, it does present that the claims attributed to this particular person have been aggressively promoted and aided by somebody who has an expert historical past of utilizing people to create fictional salacious drama. It is a truth each Lubow, and attorneys working for Johnson, tried to downplay or disguise.

“I positively do not thoughts you answering this query,” Meagher suggested the particular person figuring out herself as Johnson throughout the interview with Revelist. “However due to all of the hoopla in regards to the peripheral characters on this, I actually do not thoughts you saying that you just bought assist, however I do not need you to determine who helped you.”

Lubow instructed Snopes he stands by his story — in that he heard in regards to the Johnson allegations from a buddy at a celebration someday round 2014 after which helped her transfer ahead with the lawsuit, produce the video and publicize her allegations to the media.

Unbiased Proof for Johnson’s Claims?

The accuser’s lawyer, Meagher, instructed Shugerman, the Revelist reporter, that centering the narrative on Lubow permits “the sins of others to be visited upon my shopper.” The issue, although, is that each one the proof for this case got here to the general public by way of him or along with his obvious involvement.

Some commentators — together with Lubow himself in a cellphone name with Snopes — have argued that the similarities of Johnson’s tales to different victims of Epstein — recruitment by different younger girls with guarantees of modeling gigs, trafficking these women to events with highly effective males — makes the Johnson declare compelling, no matter Lubow’s involvement. That argument turns into round, nonetheless, when one considers that detailed tales from Epstein’s victims have been publicly recognized well before any Johnson filings have been made.

Julie Okay. Brown, the journalist who uncovered the federal authorities’s plea take care of Epstein in 2008, pushed again on the notion that journalists had ignored the Johnson claims, writing on X that, “The girl simply would not speak, and her lawyer wouldn’t affirm she was even legit. … The tackle she gave on her first lawsuit was false. She was linked to political operatives at one level.”

Lubow’s involvement doesn’t preclude the fact of the Johnson allegations. “May her story be true?” Brown wrote. “Sure. As we communicate, there are in all probability some highly effective males related to Epstein who’ve employed attorneys to repay girls. There are in all probability NDA’s hooked up.”

Trump, for his half, has beforehand been held chargeable for sexual assault in civil courtroom, and has been discovered responsible of prices that contain paying off a lady to silence her about sexual contact with him. Additional, the previous president has bragged about sexual misconduct on tape.

Such info present documentary proof supporting the notion that Trump has a historical past of sexual assault, however not in opposition to youngsters. The precise documentary proof in assist of the latter declare is inexorably linked to Lubow and is tied to an individual — Johnson — who could, in all actuality, not exist.

The Backside Line

Latest claims that new paperwork show the validity of the Johnson claims are false, as a result of these paperwork are from 2016 and don’t have anything to do with what have grow to be referred to as the “Epstein docs.” 

Viral claims that Trump has a historical past of sexually assaulting youngsters first emerged with the Johnson lawsuits in 2016. Footage of courtroom paperwork associated to the case have lent perceived credibility to further unsourced claims of kid abuse that adopted, and memes ceaselessly mix the 2 claims.

Such claims aren’t new, include a number of pink flags and originated with an aggressive push by a serial fabulist.