Liberal YouTubers

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Though the Johnson cases were dismissed or withdrawn, those claims laid the groundwork for, and lent perceived credibility to, other entirely unsourced rumors that the former president had settled myriad other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.