Have any law enforcement investigations or lawsuits been filed about allegations that Donald Trump assaulted a 13-year-old named Kathy Johnson?
Executive summary
A series of civil lawsuits alleging that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted a teenage girl who used the pseudonym “Katie Johnson” (also reported as “Jane Doe”) were filed in 2016; those suits were repeatedly dismissed or withdrawn and did not produce a criminal conviction, while public reporting shows no clear record in these sources of a separate criminal-law enforcement prosecution tied to a complainant named “Kathy Johnson” (name mismatch) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting also documents that the lawsuits were filed anonymously, were promoted and amplified by partisan actors and by at least one figure with a history of staging or facilitating dubious claims, which complicates efforts to verify the allegations [4] [5].
1. What was actually filed: anonymous civil lawsuits alleging rape at Epstein’s residence
In April–October 2016 an anonymous plaintiff using the names “Katie Johnson” and later “Jane Doe” filed federal civil complaints in California and New York alleging she had been raped and assaulted by Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein when she was 13, describing encounters at Epstein’s Manhattan residence in 1994; those complaints sought damages and included affidavits from other pseudonymous witnesses but were dismissed or withdrawn on procedural grounds and did not result in a civil judgment against Trump [3] [1] [2].
2. Law enforcement investigations: no public record in provided reporting of a criminal probe tied to “Kathy Johnson”
The sources supplied detail the 2016 civil filings and publicity campaigns but do not show a criminal prosecution or disclosed law-enforcement investigation that led to charges against Trump over these specific allegations; reporting mentions efforts by outside actors to push the material to investigators — for example, a conservative donor urged Special Counsel Robert Mueller to examine the pseudonymous claim — but that is not the same as an internal FBI or prosecutor-led criminal case documented in these sources [5] [2]. If a separate criminal investigation exists, it is not documented in the provided reporting.
3. Name confusion and reporting limits: “Kathy” vs. “Katie/Jane Doe”
The query’s use of “Kathy Johnson” does not match the names used in the contemporaneous lawsuits and most reporting, which consistently use “Katie Johnson” or “Jane Doe” as pseudonyms; news outlets, books, and summaries of Trump’s alleged misconduct refer to the pseudonymous plaintiff as “Katie Johnson”/“Jane Doe,” and secondary reporting notes that the plaintiff’s identity was concealed and the litigation was sometimes withdrawn or refiled [1] [3] [2]. Because the filings used false-name pleadings, that complicates verifying whether a real individual named “Kathy Johnson” exists or was separately involved; the provided sources do not establish such a person.
4. Credibility questions, promotion, and possible agendas
Investigative reporting and fact-checkers have flagged the 2016 suits’ origins and promotion: at least one organizer, Norm Lubow (using the alias Al Taylor), has been linked to helping file versions of the suit and has a history of involvement with contested celebrity claims, and political donors and media operatives actively amplified the Johnson story during the 2016 campaign — factors that do not by themselves disprove the allegations but do indicate outside agendas and raise verification concerns noted by multiple outlets [4] [5] [6]. Coverage from mainstream outlets and books recounts the allegations and the legal filings while also noting their anonymous, procedurally troubled nature [3] [1].
5. Bottom line and evidentiary gap
The factual record in the provided reporting: civil lawsuits alleging Trump raped a 13‑year‑old using the pseudonym “Katie Johnson” were filed in 2016, refiled and withdrawn, and dismissed by judges on technical grounds; however, the materials here do not document any criminal prosecution or a law‑enforcement investigation that produced charges against Trump tied specifically to that pseudonymous plaintiff, nor do they substantiate the existence of a complainant named “Kathy Johnson” distinct from the known pseudonyms [3] [2] [1]. Any definitive claim about an ongoing or closed criminal investigation beyond what these sources show cannot be made from the supplied reporting.