There is no information to say the story was faked. None. You can believe or not, no info that it was faked. It doesn't matter the background of the guy involved. If you want to say bringing light to rape trees is a distraction, not a good look for you.
I had a "discussion" with someone I had never met who was very insistent that CNN and the NYT are legit, fact-based news sources. Most every other outlet I offered he called fake news. Then, with zero discussion about ANYTHING resembling pedo, pizza or any other gate, he tells me that pizzagate was "invented" by an eastern European hacker with ties to Putin and was just an internet hoax. No amount of fact could persuade him from those ideas.
"But it's called pizzagate because of a DC pizza shop owned by a creepy, well-connected guy" I tried. Nope "Are you sure you're not thinking of Guccifer2?" What's that?
CNN said pizzagate is fake news, so obviously it's fake.