WASHINGTON – It was arguably one of the more bizarre news stories of last year. And it was all fake.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possibly collusion with President Trump, was the target of a scheme where women were offered money to make up claims of sexual harassment against him.

The plot, which was quickly uncovered by reporters just days before the midterm elections in November, was referred to the FBI for investigation. But now, one of the two men allegedly behind the scheme opened up to USA TODAY about the plot and all the other ways he uses his platform to spread lies to the American public.

Jacob Wohl, a 21-year-old self-professed "political and corporate intel consultant" and supporter of President Donald Trump, told USA TODAY in an interview that he's already plotting ways to discredit Democrats in the 2020 election with lies and other disinformation, using his large following on social media to cause disarray similar to what Russians did during the 2016 election.

More:This 21-year-old tweeted lies about Robert Mueller and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Now, he’s eyeing the 2020 election

More:Robert Mueller asks FBI to review alleged sexual harassment hoax, his spokesman says

Twitter announced that it is permanently suspending Wohl following the publication of a USA TODAY article in which he boasted of using the social media platform to spread lies and disinformation.

Wohl said he was eager to correct the record on the Mueller episode, in which his apparent efforts to disgrace Trump’s foremost adversary ended up unraveling into somewhat of a joke.

It started with emails received by several news outlets in which the sender claimed an intelligence company had tried to pay her to accuse Mueller of sexual misdeeds. A professor produced emails showing that she had also been approached for information by the company.

Reporters followed a bizarre online trail to reveal that Wohl was behind the intelligence company, which seemed to be staffed by an office full of imagined employees.

Wohl and his partner in the episode, Republican lobbyist and conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman, then announced a news conference devolving into farce when a woman who they said was going to make allegations against Mueller didn’t show up.

The result of the Elmore Leonard-esque plot was a media cycle of ridicule for Wohl.

More:Jack Burkman: The conspiracy theorist accused of offering money for Mueller allegations

But, Wohl claimed to USA TODAY, however, that a goal of his scheme had been to trick journalists into thinking that he had offered to pay for dirt on Mueller, so he made up a person and sent those allegations to media outlets. On his phone, he scrolled through emails from reporters at major outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times and Buzzfeed who had tried to garner more information from a person who he says did not actually exist.

He described these emails-- of reporters doing their due diligence-- as trophies from a logic-stretching plan that had as the ultimate goal getting reporters to go to a news conference at a D.C.-area Holiday Inn.

"The real allegations against Mueller would have been ignored … had we not roped the media into attending the press conference," Wohl said.

But those "real allegations" appear to be even more problematic. At the news conference, Wohl distributed a document that was digitally signed, purportedly by the absent accuser Carolyne Cass, in which she said she had been sexually assaulted by Mueller in New York in 2010. In the interview this month, Wohl referred to Cass as a "real accuser" and called her allegations credible.

But when reached by USA TODAY, 34-year-old Carolyne Cass of Los Angeles said Wohl, whom she met on Craigslist, had tricked her by pretending to be an investigator named Matthew Cohen who was trained by Israeli intelligence forces and agreed to help her with "unscrupulous characters ripping me off."

Cass said she paid the man she knew as Cohen $2,000, for which he did no work but instead offered her the prospect of employment at his intelligence agency and had her speak on the phone to people whose identities she now believes Wohl fabricated.

Cass said it ultimately became clear that Cohen and his associates, imaginary or otherwise, “needed a credible female to put on the line” for false allegations about Mueller. “They made it up,” Cass said of the document accusing Mueller, which was passed around at the news conference. “They wrote it and docu-signed it.”

She claimed Cohen tried to get her to speak at the news conference but she “escaped” and learned only as the scheme exploded that Cohen was in fact Wohl. “He completely lied to me,” Cass said.

Wohl had as recently as this month referred to Cass while speaking in detail about the Mueller episode. But when asked about Cass’s version of events, Wohl said he could not speak further because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with her and “can’t violate any confidences.” Cass said no such agreement existed.

Burkman also refused to discuss his role in the Mueller scheme. Both Wohl and Cass say they have not been contacted by the FBI.

Stanford Law School professor Robert Weisberg said Wohl’s actions could be construed by a federal prosecutor as wire fraud, obstruction of justice or conspiracy – or as possibly violating various state statutes – but likely fell into a legal “gray zone.”

“The whole thing smacks of illegality and nefariousness and deception, but it still needs to have an anchor in criminal statute,” Weisberg said.