QAnon Isn’t A Fever Dream — It’s Projection
Reexamining the credible allegations that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home
It is tempting to dismiss QAnon as a fringe movement. Yet in our desperately polarized country, one in four social media users regard its tangled web of conspiracy where Democrats feast on the blood of children as “at least somewhat accurate.” Some QAnon boosters are even slated to become members of Congress on Tuesday. Much like a secret trafficking tunnel in the basement of a pizza parlor, it seems we just can’t escape it.
To take on QAnon, we have to understand how it started. Like many conspiracies in Trump’s orbit, it is not a fever dream — it’s projection. Donald Trump isn’t secretly dismantling a child sex trafficking ring as “the illustrious Q”; he has been plainly implicated as a perpetrator in one for years, and QAnon may be part of a sloppy attempt to cover it up.
It is well known that Trump was close friends with infamous billionaire Jeffrey Epstein during his most active years as an accused child sex trafficker. What is not yet understood is whether QAnon itself was born from a disinformation campaign to bury credible allegations that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl at Epstein’s mansion.
In November 2018, I wrote a viral Twitter thread examining publicly available information about these accusations. In both a lawsuit and separately recorded video testimony, Trump’s accuser (who used the pseudonym “Jane Doe” in the legal filings and “Katie Johnson” in the videos) alleges Donald Trump sexually assaulted her on four separate occasions, culminating in a rape when she was just 13 at Epstein’s Manhattan home.
Her evidence? Three sworn declarations — from her, a friend she confided in at the time, and a person identified as one of Epstein’s recruiters. All of the court filings can be found here.
Despite all this, Johnson’s allegations have received little media attention since she first went public in 2016. This is likely because she chose to remain anonymous, her early advocates were… not great, and frankly, her claims are deeply disturbing. (Not to mention the fact that her alleged abuser is both notoriously litigious and now President of the United States.) Yet, as my thread documents, Johnson’s story is supported by details uncovered by Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown — specifics about Epstein’s trafficking operation that weren’t widely known when Johnson came forward two years earlier.
Johnson’s allegations were not a last-ditch effort to smear Trump before the 2016 election. Her compelling and detailed video testimony appears to have been recorded on February 11 of that year — days after Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucus and a full three months before Trump would become the presumptive Republican nominee.
Before we wade deeper into Johnson’s story, what does all this have to do with QAnon? The answer goes back to November 2016.
Johnson was scheduled to reveal her identity at a press conference on November 2. That afternoon, her attorney called it off, citing “numerous threats” that made Johnson “afraid to show her face.” To put this in context, Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen — who is known for making very forceful threats — bought Stormy Daniel’s silence the very next day, and the Trump-allied National Enquirer allegedly bought Karen McDougal’s the day after that. The Trump campaign appears to have been on peak offense that week.
On October 29, social media accounts began to circulate disinformation in what appears to be a coordinated campaign, falsely claiming Anthony Weiner’s laptop contained evidence of an “international child enslavement and sex ring” with Jeffrey Epstein and Hillary Clinton at the core. Three days later, the day of Johnson’s planned press conference, a self-employed private investigator named Douglas Hagmann repeated these unfounded rumors on InfoWars. Pro-Trump media figure Mike Cernovich further speculated that references to food in emails leaked from the Clinton camp were code for child sex trafficking.
Thus, Pizzagate was born. Within a year, that baseless conspiracy morphed into the ever-growing web of wack jobs known as QAnon.
Accusing others of what he is being accused (or is, in fact, guilty) of is a classic and well-documented Trump tactic. Known as projection, this behavior is also typical of a pathological narcissist. It is unclear if Trump’s team helped craft this narrative, but we do know they actively spread it.
A year-long investigation by two teams of researchers found the fake scandal was spread by various botnets and automated accounts, including 14 linked to Russia’s 2016 influence campaign, the Internet Research Agency. One of those users was then retweeted by Donald Trump Jr., rightwing pundit Ann Coulter, and Trump operative Roger Stone. Erik Prince, brother of soon-to-be Education Secretary Betsy Devos, grossly exaggerated Hillary Clinton’s ties to Epstein in an interview November 4. So what exactly might all these forces have worked so hard to bury?
Johnson’s story is remarkably similar to other purported victims of Jeffrey Epstein. According to the lawsuit, she came to New York in June 1994 “in the hope of starting a modeling career.” Johnson soon met “Tiffany” (a pseudonym used by a woman who claims to have recruited for Epstein) who offered to bring her to parties where she could meet people in the industry.
Johnson claims she and Trump had “sexual contact” at four parties she attended that summer. She says she understood both Trump and Epstein “knew that [she] was 13 years old.” At their fourth encounter, she says “Trump tied me to a bed, exposed himself to me, and then proceeded to forcibly rape me.”
The details in the lawsuit are chilling to read, but you can hear Johnson recount the rape in her own words in the below clip. All of the videos linked below were clipped by me, using footage originally posted on JusticeForKatie.com. This website has since been taken down, but the full video of Johnson’s testimony is available here.
Listen to Katie’s voice. Listen to her story. As someone who is close to many survivors of rape and child sexual abuse, Johnson’s narrative rings true to me, and her pain is apparent.
In the lawsuit and additional video clips, Johnson’s descriptions ofEpstein match details about his operation that would not be publicly reported in the Miami Herald for another two years: how Epstein’s recruiter network operated, new victims coerced into giving him massages, Epstein forcing digital penetration. How could Johnson know if she hadn’t lived it?
Johnson’s description of her first encounter with Trump also fits his known idiosyncrasies and germophobia. She recounts being required to wear a glove before touching him. In another clip, Johnson explains “Anything that was in relation to [Trump]…being satisfied or happy had to do with him being in power, but extreme power.” She then talks about being forced to perform a fantasy where Trump threatens to deport one of his maids unless she gives him oral sex. These characterizations of Trump may not sound surprising after four years of continuous coverage, but they fell outside his mainstream reputation in February 2016.
Later in the video, Johnson testifies that “Donald Trump specifically asked about me because I remind him of his daughter, and [Tiffany] said, ‘Well, she’s 13 as well.’” Polite society glosses over Trump’s disturbing comments about Ivanka over the years, but we all know that this adds up.
Johnson first filed her case without legal representation in California in April 2016 before refiling with an attorney in New York federal court that September. If she were simply an actor paid to hurt Trump’s chances, filing these claims pro se and then sitting on them for five months would be a strange move.
Katie Johnson (filing as “Jane Doe”) is not the only witness offered in the lawsuit. A woman using the pseudonym “Joan Doe” attests under penalty of perjury that Johnson told her about the sexual abuse by Trump and Epstein “in the 1994–95 school year” — shortly after the alleged assaults — and that she is willing to testify in court.
There is also a sworn declaration from “Tiffany Doe,” who claims she worked for Epstein between 1991 and 2000 “to get attractive adolescent women to attend these parties.” Tiffany corroborates Johnson’s story of being recruited in New York and claims she “personally witnessed” the four encounters between Johnson and Trump.
Tiffany also confirms she was in the room on “one occasion where Mr. Trump forced [Johnson] and a 12-year-old female named Maria [to] perform oral sex” as part of the maid deportation fantasy. Johnson says she never saw Maria again after that.
Both Tiffany and Johnson claim Trump threatened to hurt Johnson and her family if she ever told anyone about the rape, suggesting he could make her “disappear like Maria.”
Two days after calling off the press conference due to renewed threats, Johnson withdrew her lawsuit on November 4, 2016 and has not been heard from since her alleged rapist became the most powerful man in the world. “When something so traumatic happens to someone so young, you never, ever really get over it,” she confided in her video testimony. “Thinking about it just makes me sick to my stomach.”
Imagine having to see your abuser on TV. Every day. In the White House.
The more than twenty-six women who have accused Donald Trump of rape, sexual assault, and harassment don’t have to imagine. Yet Johnson is often left off of these lists. Journalists have largely ignored her claims — I believe, in part, because they are so deeply disturbing. But three sworn declarations filed in federal court under penalty of perjury are strong evidence that merits thorough investigation. Johnson’s candid video testimony, and its congruence with details later reported in the Miami Herald, is even more compelling.
I am an attorney and an activist, not a journalist. I have no way of independently verifying Johnson’s story. But significant evidence in the public record supports many elements of her claims. So let’s dig in.
While child sexual abuse is a uniquely serious accusation, Johnson is not the only person Trump allegedly assaulted as a minor. Last year, an episode of BBC Panorama interviewed a man who witnessed Trump at parties with young models in 1980s and 90s New York. “We do know he was having sex with them,” the man said. “The next day or the days after, you’d hear about it. He’d brag about it to his friends…These girls were anywhere from 14, 15, 16 years old.”
In a separate incident, five Miss Teen USA contestants claim Trump walked into the dressing room where girls as young as 15 were changing clothes at the 1997 pageant. Eight years later, Trump bragged to Howard Stern about “get[ting] away with” going “backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed.”
Trump’s sexual comments toward children and teenagers are extensively documented, even in his own voice. He openly boasted in a 1999 radio interview that Ivanka made him promise not to date anyone younger than her. She was 17 at the time.
Michael Cohen claims Trump ogled his 15-year-old daughter, asking “When did she get so hot?” Former teen model Barbara Pilling told reporters he asked her out for dinner at an industry party in the late 1980s. She recalls Trump asking how old she was. “I said 17 and he said, ‘That’s just great — you’re not too old, not too young.’”
Trump’s close relationship with Epstein is also not in question. Trump told New York magazine in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy…it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” Not exactly subtle.
According to a new book by Barry Levine, Trump and Epstein were close friends and neighbors in Palm Beach at the time of Johnson’s alleged rape and frequently traveled together to-and-from New York. Reportedly, Epstein once brought a very young girl in heavy makeup with him on Trump’s plane, and no one said a word about it.
Epstein famously recorded his associates and contacts in a little black book. Trump’s name is listed, along with 14 phone numbers, including listings for “Milania” and various Trump domestic staff. Levine notes that Epstein frequently visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which was not yet open to the public. (Incidentally, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, says she was recruited by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell while working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago.)
There are many photos of Trump with Epstein, including shots of them mugging at a party with Melania and Ghislaine, who faces federal charges for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse young girls. The man pictured between Trump and Epstein in the first photo is Prince Andrew, who Giuffre claims she was trafficked to sleep with in London when she was 17.
It is hard to believe Trump could get so deep into this social circle without any knowledge of Epstein’s abuses.
Levine’s book also includes a never-before-seen photo of Trump and Epstein at the opening of a Harley Davidson cafe in 1993, with a young Ivanka and Eric in tow. This photo was taken nine months before Johnson alleges Trump targeted her because she “remind[ed] him of his daughter.”
Trump and Epstein didn’t just run in similar social circles. They were known to pursue women together. Last year, a video of Trump and Epstein leering at models and cheerleaders at a November 1992 party emerged. A few months later, in January 1993, pageant organizer George Houraney claims Trump asked him to arrange a party with the finalists, promising to invite heads of modeling agencies and prospective sponsors. An hour into the party, Houraney says just one other guest was present: Jeffrey Epstein. When Houraney asked Trump where everyone else was, he reports Trump replied, “Well, this is it.”
The two men also shared an obsession with models. In 1999, Trump founded a management service as “his own private source for models,” according to one industry agent. Descriptions of Trump Model Management sound eerily similar to Epstein’s recruiting schemes. A Mother Jones investigation uncovered evidence that the agency illegally brought girls as young as 14 to the U.S. to work uncompensated. Sounds a lot like trafficking, no?
Yet it is hard to know who may have been imitating who. Journalist Julie K. Brown uncovered a court filing where Epstein is quoted as saying, “I want to set up my modeling agency the same way Trump set up his modeling agency” — which is truly one of the most damning statements I can imagine.
Trump’s ties to Epstein extend far beyond the two men themselves. In 2007, Epstein was prosecuted for “assembling a large, cult-like network of underage girls.” The prosecutor? Future Trump Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta. Epstein’s defense attorney? Future diehard Trump defender, Alan Dershowitz.
According to the Miami Herald, Acosta worked with Dershowitz to give Epstein a sweetheart deal — just 13 months in county jail, which he was permitted to leave every day for 16 hours of “work release.” Perhaps more egregious, Acosta “granted immunity to ‘any potential co-conspirators.’” This unusual move could not only exempt Trump from prosecution for any crimes committed against Katie Johnson. It may also protect Dershowitz.
In addition to her accusations about Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre claims Dershowitz had sex with her “six times…the first time was when I was about 16, early on in my servitude to Epstein.’’ A second reported Epstein victim later made similar allegations about Dershowitz. He dismissed her as unstable, saying she “bizarrely claimed to [possess] a video of President Trump engaging in pedophilia.” It is widely believed that Epstein secretly recorded his rich and powerful friends engaging in child sex abuse at his properties to use as leverage. So is this woman’s claim “bizarre,” or is it potentially corroborating?
Attorney General Bill Barr is tangled in Epstein’s web as well. Barr’s father, Donald, was headmaster at the prestigious Dalton School, where Epstein was hired as a math teacher, despite his lack of a teaching certificate or even an undergraduate degree. In a truly bizarre twist, Donald Barr published a sci-fi novel depicting the rape of enslaved teenage girls in outer space the year before Epstein was hired at Dalton. At the very least, all these men sure seem to share common interests.
Both Bill Barr and Labor Secretary Acosta previously worked at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that defended Epstein against criminal charges in Florida. Despite this seeming conflict of interest, Attorney General Barr refused to recuse himself from the Epstein prosecution. One month later, the billionaire reportedly hung himself while under supervision of Barr’s Department of Justice. Speaking of projection, Trump has amplified conspiracy theories that the Clintons murdered Epstein to cover up their involvement in his trafficking operation…
So what separates a conspiracy theory like QAnon from an actual conspiracy like Epstein’s child sex ring? Conspiracy theories are not suspect simply because they involve powerful people acting in coordination. The wealthy elite know how to organize at least as effectively as the rest of us. What distinguishes conspiracy theories is their reliance on rumor, conjecture, and speculation over verified documentation and evidence.
While Johnson’s legal claims and video testimony are not irrefutable proof of Trump’s wrongdoing, they also do not exist in a vacuum. Even if we take Katie Johnson out of the equation, the established facts about Trump’s behavior cited throughout this article are enough to land a less powerful man on the sex offender registry, if not in prison. Surely, it must at least disqualify him from a second term in the White House.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, Johnson’s allegations must be heard and fully investigated. Every victim and survivor deserves justice, and the American people deserve to know the true depth of depravity currently occupying the Oval Office. As Katie urges in her recorded testimony, “I just want people to know. I have faith in our society that we’ll make the right choice.”
Hopefully, this time around, we will.
