Is a photo that shows Melania Trump smiling and standing next to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell authentic? No, that's not true: Online detection tools flagged the image as likely digitally altered and likely AI-generated. One rated it as 97 percent likely to be digitally edited. The claim appeared in an April 10, 2026, post on X.com by the account…
Does a viral image purporting to show Jeffrey Epstein hugging Melania Trump document a real-life scene? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find supporting evidence that it's an authentic photo. Two AI detectors pointed to the presence of generative AI in the picture. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X by the…
Did real never-before-seen images of Trump and Epstein together with young girls originate from a Department of Justice release of Epstein files? No, that's not true: The images are AI-generated and originated from a video published in Nov. 2025 by a tabloid-style Spanish language TikTok account. Credible news sources have not reported on these images, and the DOJ file numbers…
Does a post about Mark Zuckerberg's supposed subpoena accurately reflect recent reporting on the Jeffrey Epstein front company, Butterfly Foundation, named in the Tehran files? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no news articles about the supposed subpoena or mentioning the statement "Mr. Zuckerberg will cooperate fully" the post said his lawyers released. The "Butterfly Foundation" is not named…
Does a viral image prove that Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite convicted of sex trafficking for Jeffrey Epstein, touched Melania Trump's breast while posing next to Donald Trump at a party in the early 2000s? No, that's not true: A real photo of them was digitally altered to change the position of Maxwell's hand. In the original shot, Maxwell's arm rests…
Does a photo show Hillary Clinton posing with her husband, Bill Clinton, along with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell? No, that's not true: The woman in the picture is Jane Slagsvol, wife of the late musician Jimmy Buffett, not Hillary Clinton. The photo has been cropped; the original version shows Buffett standing next to Slagsvol. The claim appeared in a…
Does a viral image document Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney dining with Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite convicted of sex trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: The image displayed a watermark pointing to a generative AI tool. Several details in the picture, such as missing temples of a person's glasses or an earring incorrectly attached to an…
Was Ghislaine Maxwell spotted out and about in Québec, Canada? No, that's not true: This video shows a real street scene in Québec, but an AI tool has been used to swap the face of the woman with Ghislaine Maxwell's. The creator who published this face swap video does not have a disclaimer regarding the AI-generated content. But, in a…
Did the family of Epstein's late survivor Virginia Giuffre, Stephen Colbert or Elon Musk spend millions of dollars to file a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other people? No, that's not true: A federal court database showed no such case filed by Giuffre's surviving brother, and credible media organizations did not publish any reports of such a…
Did Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announce on a livestream that they are spending $250 million to find the truth in the Virginia Giuffre case? No, that's not true: Neither the celebrity couple nor news organizations said anything about it. The claim was promoted by overseas-based pages that publish made-up stories to drive traffic-based ad revenue. The claim appeared in…
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