Lurid Trump allegations made by Louise Mensch and co-writer came from hoaxer

[oberliner]

Explosive allegations about Donald Trump made by online writers with large followings among Trump critics were based on bogus information from a hoaxer who falsely claimed to work in law enforcement.

Claude Taylor tweeted fake details of criminal inquiries into Trump that were invented by a source whose claim to work for the New York attorney general was not checked, according to emails seen by the Guardian. The allegations were endorsed as authentic and retweeted by his co-writer Louise Mensch.

The source’s false tips included an allegation, which has been aggressively circulated by Mensch and Taylor, that Trump’s inactive fashion model agency is under investigation by New York authorities for possible sex trafficking.

The hoaxer, who fed the information to Taylor by email, said she acted out of frustration over the “dissemination of fake news” by Taylor and Mensch. Their false stories about Trump have included a claim that he was already being replaced as president by Senator Orrin Hatch in a process kept secret from the American public.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/28/trump-tweets-hoax-louise-mensch-claude-taylor?CMP=share_btn_tw

[4139]

1. Ha!

[oberliner]

2. Not all that surprising

Kind of makes perfect sense.

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

Saw that Guardian article earlier. I hope this shuts them both up for good

[jberryhill]

4. I'm becoming more convinced that nobody actually reads DU

Last edited Mon Aug 28, 2017, 08:29 PM - Edit history (3)

httpshttps://www.democraticunderground.com/10141854669

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016192229


https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029526962

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029526966

[leftstreet]

5. LOL

Guilty as charged


I rarely go in Breaking News or Editorials

[oberliner]

7. That's LBN and Editorials

This is GD.

[jberryhill]

8. Ah, well then

I guess that leaves Cooking and Baking in the dark.

[Nevernose]

6. Claude had a mea culpa earlier

Said he'd been tricked, apologized. I was willing accept it ("I made a mistake" isn't something we'll ever hear from the GOP), but he never specified what he'd screwed up. Over and over again it was "a series of tweets about an investigation in NY AG Schneiderman's office that was a hoax I fell for."

The President Orrin Hatch thing was when I decided for sure that Mensch was either mentally ill or back on drugs, or maybe both.

[pnwmom]

9. Yes, for Taylor, and he's apologized. Mensch's stories come from different sources

that she says she knows personally.

She re-tweeted Taylor's story, but so did thousands of other people.

[MineralMan]

10. It's easy to fool fools.

As we see...