Shugerman says Johnson was “vague” in her descriptions of Epstein’s parties and how many people were there, and wouldn’t go into details about what she was asked to do. Some of the details she did give were consistent with descriptions of Epstein and his house Vicky Ward listed in a 2003 Vanity Fair profile — which could either lend credence to Johnson’s story, or suggest that “Johnson” just read the Vanity Fair story as research.
The lawsuit accusing Trump of raping a 13-year-old girl, explained
The anonymous plaintiff dropped her lawsuit against Trump, the circumstances around which have been bizarre.
"She has dogs," Meagher explained.
Most troublingly, a detective who worked with Epstein’s victims called into question a key part of Johnson’s story:
Hearing her answers that night, I had to remind myself that PTSD from sexual trauma is known to damage victims' memories — and that the parties she recalled allegedly happened more than two decades ago. But Mike Fisten, a retired Miami-Dade detective who conducted research for several of Epstein's victims, denied such parties ever even took place.
"Jeffery never had parties like described in their complaint," Fisten told me. "Jeffery had sex parties, for sure, with two or three girls … but never with other guys."
There were men in attendance at Epstein’s more large, lavish affairs, Fisten said, but nothing illicit ever happened at such events.
Meagher, Shugerman wrote, is eager to put the focus back on the alleged rape of a 13-year-old instead of focusing on the antics of Taylor and Baer. Anything else, Meagher told Shugerman, is "allowing the sins of others to be visited upon my client."
But until Johnson actually does break her silence in a bigger way, there are still a lot of questions yet to be answered.
“I don't know if the Katie Johnson I spoke to is the same girl who Trump allegedly raped in 1994, or if that girl even exists,” Shugerman concluded in her piece. “All I know is the reason why the woman I spoke to on July 11 chose to speak to me at all. ‘I just want to get justice,’ she told me. ‘I mean, these things happen to girls everywhere … I just want people to know.’”