A 22-year-old Columbia University student accused of child sex crimes did not work as an official for Hillary Clinton's campaign as multiple online sites are reporting.
The erroneous claims follow the June arrest of Joel Davis, a college student who campaigned at the United Nations and elsewhere against child sexual abuse, who has been charged with having sex with a 13-year-old boy and seeking sex images of children as young as 2 years old.
The reports appear to rely on a 2016 photo of Davis wearing a Clinton button and posing with other supporters in front of her campaign posters. Some stories label him as Clinton campaign official while others refer to him as her campaign chair. "FBI: Clinton Campaign Official Arrested On Child Rape Charges" was the headline on YourNewsWire and True Pundit.
Davis, who appears to have supported Clinton in the 2016 election, was never employed with the campaign, Hillary Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in an email.
"He is not in our system as ever having been on payroll or as a paid vendor of any kind at any time," Merrill said.
Davis was not referred to, cited or quoted as a member of the Clinton campaign team in any news story published between 2012 and 2017, according to an archive search of all newspaper, television transcripts and newswire services around the world.
YourNewsWire did not respond to requests for comment and True Pundit could not be reached.