You’d think by now people would know better than to believe something just because they saw it on Twitter, but sadly people seem determined to turn Idiocracy into a documentary.

The latest “Don’t-Believe-Everything-You-Read” lesson comes from the ongoing scandal regarding Stormy Daniels, the porn star who is alleging she had a sexual affair with President Donald Trump.

As the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams reported, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, recently appeared on MSNBC to discuss his client’s allegations against Trump. When Ari Melber asked Avenatti about her accusations that Trump’s people had threatened her with physical harm, Avenatti said they had a lot of other “information,” “evidence,” and “documents” that they had yet to reveal that supported his client’s case:

Ari, you know as a good lawyer yourself, that good lawyers don’t play their entire hand on the first go-around. We have a lot of information, a lot of evidence, a lot of documents that haven’t come to light yet. Numerous pieces of evidence, numerous facts, and we’re not going to show our hand.

Not once does he mention photographs of any kind, and certainly no mention of nekkid photos of the 45th President of the United States.

So how did the rumor that Stormy Daniels had “dick pics” of Trump get started?

Because people are gullible, and Twitter is full of weasels.

The specific weasel at fault in this case is one Claude Taylor, who uses the laughably dishonest Twitter handle of @TrueFactsStated. In a tweet Monday evening, Taylor commented on Avenatti’s appearance on MSNBC and tweeted, “I’ll paraphrase. We have photos of Trump’s penis.”

Stormy’s Lawyer on MSNBC. I’ll paraphrase. “We have photos of Trump’s penis”.

— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) March 19, 2018

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “paraphrase” as “a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form” — that would mean keeping the meaning the same, not serving up some metric ton of complete and utter bovine excrement, which is what Taylor did here.

“Fun fact: It’s not paraphrasing if you just make it up,” wrote Adams. “That’s just called lying.”

To summarize:

Claude Taylor is a liar, liar, pants on fire.

Stormy Daniels does not have any dick pics of President Trump.

If anyone does have naked Trump photos, please, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, burn them and scatter the ashes to the winds.

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.