The woman behind a series of videos pushing a conspiracy theory about Broward County, Fla., Sheriff Scott Israel has admitted that the content of the videos is false and that she was paid to make the claims.
Israel was thrust into the national spotlight after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Since then, a number of conspiracy theories have emerged around the shooting, and Israel has found himself swept up in many of them.
{mosads}In three old YouTube videos, the woman, whose identity remains anonymous, claimed that Israel impregnated her when she was 17 years old and made her get an abortion.
But the woman and her attorney acknowledged to Politico that the claims were false.
“I was paid to say these things. I didn’t even know what I was saying,” the woman told Politico. “I’m sorry … It’s fake.”
The woman, who now lives in New York, said she was paid $25 per video in 2012, when Israel beat out the Republican incumbent for the sheriff’s office. She said she was 17 at the time and did the videos through Fiverr, a freelancing website where she was paid to record testimonials for various products, according to Politico.
The woman was reportedly taken aback when told that the videos about Israel have been used to push conspiracy theories about the sheriff in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
Both the woman and Israel have sought to have YouTube take the videos down, but those requests have been refused, Politico reported.
“Now that these bogus, fake videos have been debunked we would ask that YouTube comply with our previous request (going back to 2012) and take them down!” Amy Rose, Israel’s campaign manager, said in a statement to Politico.
“It’s too bad that the young woman who was paid to repeat these lies can’t identify the person who paid her to do so.”