Rape lawsuits against Donald Trump linked to former TV producer
Norm Lubow, formerly a producer on the
Jerry Springer show, apparently coordinated lawsuits accusing Donald Trump of raping a child in the 1990s
Court filings in California and New York, purportedly on behalf of a woman using the name Katie Johnson, have accused Trump of rape. The Republican vehemently denies the allegations. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters
Jon Swaine in New York
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Lawsuits accusing
Donald Trump of sexually assaulting a child in the 1990s appear to have been orchestrated by an eccentric anti-Trump campaigner with a record of making outlandish claims about celebrities.
Norm Lubow, a former producer on the Jerry Springer TV show, has previously been involved with disputed allegations that OJ Simpson bought illegal drugs on the day Simpson’s wife was murdered, and that Kurt Cobain’s widow had the Nirvana frontman killed.
Court filings in California and New York against Trump, purportedly on behalf of a woman using the name Katie Johnson, have in recent weeks alleged that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee raped Johnson when she was 13. Trump vehemently denies the allegations.
Norm Lubow. Photograph: Twitter
A publicist using the pseudonym “Al Taylor” is acting as a representative for Johnson, and has been shopping around to media outlets a video of a woman who wears a disguise while recounting the allegations against Trump. “Taylor” said in telephone callslast month that he was seeking $1m for the tape.
Jezebel has published a segment of the video along with a detailed account of how the allegations against Trump were being pushed to reporters.
A telephone number and an email address used by “Taylor” have also been used by Lubow, according to three sources who have worked with them. A longtime associate of Lubow also told the Guardian that Lubow used the identity “Al Taylor”.
“Taylor” told the Guardian that he helped the alleged victim Johnson put together her first lawsuit against Trump, which was filed in California earlier this year. “She is a friend of mine,” he said, declining to make her available for interview.
He then became threatening when asked more about his motivations in seeking the money for the video and about his true identity. “Just be warned: we’ll sue you if we don’t like what you write,” he said. “We’ll sue your ass, own your ass and own your newspaper’s ass as well, punk.”
In 2011, “Al Taylor” claimed to
cable news channels and gossip websites that he was negotiating a $1m deal for an exclusive TV interview with Casey Anthony, who was acquitted in a high-profile trial in Florida of killing her young daughter. Anthony’s attorneys denied the claims and the interview never took place.
Al Bowman with Larry King. Photograph: Facebook
The Guardian has established that a photograph supplied to those media outlets to illustrate the interviews, purporting to be of “Al Taylor”, was in fact a picture of Al Bowman, a minor Hollywood promoter who has known Lubow for more than 20 years. Bowman, also a former Jerry Springer Show producer, claims to have been a chauffeur to celebrities such as Whitney Houston.
In telephone interviews, Bowman insisted that he knew nothing about the lawsuits against Trump. Bowman said he actually supported Trump’s campaign for president and intended to vote for him – a claim backed up by a series of pro-Trump postings in past months on his personal Facebook page. Bowman’s accent and tone of voice appeared not to match that used by “Taylor” during the 2011 cable news interviews and in recent phone calls.
Bowman eventually said he knew the true identity of the man involved in the action against Trump, and that it was a former colleague of his. “Al Taylor’s real name is Norm Lubow,” he said.
Speaking about the lawsuit against Trump, “Al Taylor” first introduced himself to the Guardian as “the attorney in California”, before later clarifying that he was not a lawyer. “My brother and sister were attorneys,” he said. Lubow’s brother Owen is an attorney, as was their late sister Barbara. A message left for Owen Lubow was not returned.
There are further detailed connections between Lubow and “Al Taylor”. An email address for Norm Lubow that was provided by Bowman matched an email address that, according to two sources who have done business with “Al Taylor”, is also used by “Taylor”. A telephone number for Lubow provided by Bowman matched a number used by one of these sources for reaching “Taylor”. A separate cellphone number used by “Taylor”, which was listed on the California lawsuit against Trump, has the same area code, 760, which covers the city of Palm Desert – Lubow’s last known address.
Lubow, 55, did not return a subsequent series of telephone calls, text messages, emails and online messages over the past two weeks seeking confirmation that he was indeed “Al Taylor”. Past media reports have also identified “Taylor” as a spokesman for the Erotic Heritage Museum and the Hustler strip club, both in Las Vegas. Messages left for “Taylor” at both the museum and the club were not returned.
Statements made by Lubow over the past two decades on a variety of topics have been called into question.
In 2014, using his comic pro-marijuana pseudonym Reverend Bud Green, Lubow
claimed to have arranged the replacement of US flags on the Brooklyn Bridge with white flags. The following month, however, German artists
came forward with video evidence that they in fact were behind the stunt.
In 1998, guests on Springer’s notoriously wild talkshow alleged that Lubow had encouraged them behind the scenes to stage fights and invent outrageous stories during recordings of the program. The allegation was denied by Lubow and other show staff.
Also in 1998,
Lubow appeared wearing a disguisein the controversial documentary film Kurt and Courtney under the name “Jack Briggs” alongside Bowman, the minor Hollywood promoter whose photograph was later used by “Al Taylor” for television interviews. Bowman said “Briggs” was Lubow.
full article
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/donald-trump-sexual-assault-lawsuits-norm-lubow
